Harry Potter and The Apprentice of Death
by Lord Claw
Summary: The night Harry's parents die, the last Soul Reaper Death himself goes to collect Harry's soul only to find that he is not dead, and that he has high spirit energy. Death takes Harry under his protection, and trains him to become a Soul Reaper.
1. The Unseen Change

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

(Author Notes)This will be my first Crossover fiction. There will be no characters from the Bleach series, only ideas and themes are being borrowed and inserted into the Harry Potter universe; please enjoy.

(More Author Notes) I have done some recent editing to first few chapters to correct some mistakes that I have made, there is not change in the story

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A dark figure walked through the pile of rubble that was until recently a cozy little house in a town called Godric's Hollow. The dark figure went by many names and was looking for something, a soul to be exact. For the figure clad in a long black cloak with a scythe across his back was Death, or that was simply one of the names that he went by. He had been called Death, The Grim Reaper, but it had thousands of years since anyone had actual called him his real name.

It was his job to maintain balance, to keep the cycle of birth, death and rebirth flowing, another one of his titles was a balancer. Not the most glamorous of jobs but it needed to be done, or else the world would collapse. For such a necessary service provided for free you would think that he would be thanked more often, this was not the case it seemed that almost every soul he meet was angry at him as if he was the reason why they were dead. Or the soul would do something foolish like trying to run not knowing that he was in fact there to help, so foolish to run nothing escaped him everyone would meet him at the end sooner or later.

"There you are little tike." Death said in a deep calming voice. "Poor child having to meet me at such a young age, happens too often I'm afraid."

In the middle of the rubble sat a slightly transparent baby with black unruly hair and bright green eyes. Death walked towards the boy and took the scythe off his back with a flourish.

But when Death got closer something about the infant caught his eye and it frightened him, yes strangely enough Death was scared.

A chain was attached to the baby's chest that lead into a pile of rubble just a few feet away. Death stood back and examined the boy from a few feet away, he had not seen a chain attached to a soul since balance had been achieved. Death pulled back his cowl to revile not a scull as many would have suspected but a man with short black hair, dark blue eyes and a well groomed facial hair around his upper lip and chin.

Not daring to touch the child he followed the chain into the pile of rubble. After quietly moving some pieces of wood about Death gazed upon what the other end of the chain was attached to. Cradled in the rubble lay the child's body, dirty, pale, and bloody from a jagged wound in the middle of his forehead. But most importantly it was still breathing, the boy's body was alive even with his soul expelled from him he was still alive.

This was not good he knew that he needed to guide this boy's soul over to the other side, but he could not do that unless he was dead. Balance needed to be maintained. Death thought of what to do, he could just kill the child and then guide his soul across. However he would not do that, Death had sworn long ago that he would never again kill anything that was not already dead.

Death sat down beside the infant studying him carefully he could not remember just how many years it had been since he had seen a soul chain. Not since the final battle where the last Hollows had been destroyed, and the order of spiritual energies had been changed. Hollows had been wiped out to never return, no souls would turn into hollows because they would all end up in the soul society. After the final battle the Soul Reapers no longer needed to make sure that every soul was guided across, only certain ones. With the old order each and every soul in the thousands of people that died each day would need to be guided across or else they would stay in the World of the Living and eventually become a hollow. With the new order only certain souls would be needed to continue the flow, and Harry James Potter happened to be one of those souls.

The boy seemed unremarkable but under closer inspection he felt it, pulsing from the boy was spiritual pressure. This child had strong spiritual energy, another thing not seen for millennia. Under the new order spiritual powers became nearly non existent, Souls no longer had enough spiritual pressure to do much of anything with. That's why slowly as each Soul Reaper rejoined the cycle of rebirth no new Soul Reapers replaced them, until they were all gone. All except for Death himself the last Soul Reaper.

The baby was bringing back so many memories about the past. He was a captain once, the most powerful Soul Reaper of the time. So powerful that his Zanpakutō was always in its Shikia release he could not seal his scythe back into it's katana form.

Being the last Soul Reaper was not terrible, it was not great either. Being a captain was worthless with no other to command, but he still had all the other souls in the soul society, in the Rukon district. Some of them had even become his friends.

Death pulled his thought back to the present and studied the boy further, even picking up the child. He carried the child over to his body and placed him back inside his mortal container. Nothing happened the baby's soul returned and with a twitch and a gurgling moan the child kept sleeping.

Death did not like what this could mean. This boy was strange, very strange, he had a soul chain, spiritual pressure and above all he was not dead like he should have been. Death needed to check some things, make sure that the flow of spiritual energies had not been unbalanced. He would guide several souls across tonight just to make sure. Death left the sleeping child where he lay to attend to his duties, he had a job to do, balance and order must be maintained. He would return to check on the child and to find out what had caused this oddity. The Death turned his back on the sleeping baby, and walked away. He was the last, the only balancer, the last soul reaper, he was Death.

A week later Death was fairly confident that the flow of spirit energies was still stable no newly dead soul appeared with a soul chain, and no soul chain meant no new hallows. But still the boy interested him. Was he some strange oddity, some hiccup in new order? Was it because he was supposed to be dead, but was in fact still among the living? Death did not know the answer but he was sure that sooner of later that he would have to in some way or another deal with him, it didn't help that the Department of Research and Development no longer existed since there were no other soul reapers to run it.

* * *

The child had been moved he was now staying with some relatives, in some a quite suburb the kind where most of the houses look similar and if you are not careful or drunk, you would end up entering some one else's house.

The child was being cared for, but in the loosest sense of the word. He was fed and, changed, but that was it nothing else. There were two children in the house and while one was showered with love and affection, the boy was left alone. All necessary tasks were preformed with mechanical indifference, any time the boy cried he was told to shush and the best kindness he was given was a dirty stuffed animal for company against the tears. He would not interfere if the child died from lack of care and love Death himself would have a much easier time caring for him in the soul society.

Death spent much more time watching the child than when he first expected to, much of Death's free time was spent watching the boy grow. He did not know why he spent so much time studying the boy, maybe it was curiosity, maybe he was just drawn to him, or maybe he just felt sorry for him. It was strange, in a world that lacked any significant spiritual energy the child was like a beacon in the dark, or an oasis in the desert. His spiritual pressure even seemed to be growing as his body grew, so it must not have been some fluke, the boy was truly special for one reason or the other.

The child's living conditions were terrible. As soon as he turned three years old he was moved from his crib in the spare room to a folding bed in the cupboard under the stairs, they did not even let him keep the stuffed animal, the only comfort for him when he was younger. The spare room was made into a play room for the boy's older, fatter cousin. It was filled with brightly colored toys and other trinkets, it eventual became more like a storage room almost every inch was covered in toys; broken or unused.

The cousin was a dreadful nightmare of a child, he had long since discovered that crying got him things he wanted. It was to the point that he did not have to make his crying performances convincing, and he still got his way, candy, more food, some shinny toy, it didn't matter. The cousin became pudgy and rotund looking more like a miniature Michelin Man than a toddler.

While the cousin could get away with crocodile tears, the boy could not. Every scraped knee, every nightmare that brought tears was met with a tongue lashing and maybe a smack to his hind end. Eventual the child stopped crying all together, stopped doing a lot of thing that would be considered normal for some one so young. You could see it in his eyes, there was no joy, no sparkle of youth.

The months past, the child grew. As soon as the child could walk and talk enough to understand directions his relatives had him doing chores. The boy quickly learned the difference between a good plant and a weed, if he pulled a good plant he would get yelled at and thrown into his sorry excuse for a room. Death was disgusted, they treated the boy worse than a dog. Such blatant favoritism, the cousin could do no wrong, the boy nothing right, his very existence seemed to infuriate the two adults.

Death found it hard to keep himself from interfering, it would have been very easy to lose his temper, go in there and start cleaving limbs. But the boy was a wildcard he did not know what the boy could do or actual what exactly he was, he had to keep his distance.

As time past, it seem as the relatives grew more detestable. When the boy was not doing chores or locked in the cupboard, he was silent. He might be allowed to watch television but had to sit in the corner of the room, far from his relatives, any noises even laughing at something he might think was funny and he would be told to 'Shut up' or told 'Shut up' and then thrown in to his under stair prison.

It became harder and harder not to interfere as Death watched the atrocities that the boy was put though. When his cousin punched him right in front of the two adults and then he was locked in his cupboard because his cousin complained about hurting his fist. Death almost wished that there were some Hollows around just so he could rid some of the anger in combat.

That surprised him. It had been a long time since Death had felt such strong emotions. Living for thousands of years can sometimes have that affect on you, without noticing it you wall your emotions away, keeping them locked deep inside of you. It felt good being able to _feel _again.

The final straw was just after the boy had turned five, he his cousin, and his aunt were at the grocery store. They were standing in line at the checkout, when an elderly woman in front of them dropped some coins. The boy quickly got down pick them up and handed them back to the woman.

"Oh aren't you a nice young lad." The woman said. "What's your name dear?"

The child gave the woman a confused look and replied "I don't know."

Then Death realized that none of his relatives had ever called him by name. Your name was important. It carried power with it, identified you. A name could be respected or loathed even feared. The boy needed to know his name.

It was decided, later that night Death descended on number 4 Privet Drive. Silently he entered and walked to the under stair cupboard that seemed to be leaking spiritual pressure. Death slowly opened the cupboard door that swung away with an ominous creak. The child sat up in his bed and looked at the cloaked figure of Death with squinted eyes. Death found it funny as the eyes grew wide in surprise, It had been a while since some one that was not dead could see him.

"So you can see me, can't you?" Death asked, in a deep smooth bass.

"Y-yes Sir." He stuttered. "Um who are you?"

Death's smile was hidden in the shadows of his cowl. "For now my name is not important, but yours is. Your name is Harry James Potter. That is the name that your parents gave you on the day you were born. That is the name that your relatives fail to call you. I know you will grow up to earn that name honor, because I will help you."

The boys eyes were wide in wonder and his mouth was slightly open.

"I'm going to leave you now, do not tell your anyone about this meeting. I will be back soon, good night Harry sleep well."

With that Death closed the cupboard door, and left as silently as he came.

The next day after Death finished his work guiding a few token souls across he returned. Just after the adults were asleep Death opened the cupboard door. Harry sat up in bed his eyes once again grew wide, Harry rubbed them in order to clear his vision. After he rubbed them his mouth dropped and he mumbled "I thought it was just a nightmare."

Death was a little curious about why a nightmare. Then he realized that it would be very frightening for a black cloaked man with a scythe strapped to his back to show up in the middle of the night. Death almost kicked himself for forgetting about how forbidding he could be.

"No Harry, you are not dreaming this is very real. You are very special Harry, let me show you."

Harry watched as Death pulled on a red fingerless red glove with a skull surrounded by blue and black flames. Death grabbed Harry by the shoulder and pulled, literally yanking Harry's soul out of his body. His mortal shell slumping back onto the bed.

"W-what's going on?"

"You are in your soul form. This is you without a body."

"So am I dead?" Harry said in a whisper.

"No Harry you are not dead. Look at your chest." Death pointed to the child's chest. "That chain is your chain of fate as long as it is still attached to your body you can return to it. You are not dead. But if it was severed you would be dead at least in the physical sense of the word."

Harry was looking at his soul chain and idly fingering as if to make sure it was real

"Why is this happening."

"As I said Harry you are very special the simple fact that you have a soul chain is important. I have not seen a soul chain for several millennia."

"Millennia?" Harry asked, confused by the word.

Death had to remind himself that he was dealing with a five year old. "For thousands of years. I have been around for a very long time."

"But why have you not seen a chain in that long?" Harry asked.

"A very good question I am going to explain some things and if you don't understand anything I want you to ask any questions that you have."

Death then explain to Harry about Soul Reapers. That when people died their soul was guided to the Soul Society by a Soul Reaper. Death then explain about how at one time thousands of years ago every one had a soul chain and how each and every soul had to be guided to the Soul Society, but the system of spiritual energies changed and now no one had a soul chain.

"But why did it change, and why do I have a chain?" Harry interrupted.

"Because long ago when people had soul chains and were not guided to the Soul Society, whether they hid from the Soul Reaper or for whatever reason, there was a chance that the chain given enough time would rip out and take that persons heart with it." Death tried to explain it in a way a five year old could understand. He hoped he would not traumatize the boy. "You see Harry when a soul or anybody losses his or her heart they loose all emotions, everything that makes them human is lost with their heart. The soul would become a Hollow a creature of evil and the only thing Hollows want is to fill the hole in itself by eating other souls."

Harry gasped almost comically.

Death continued explaining how Hollows were the worst enemies to Soul Reapers and that one day a giant battle was fought between every Hollow and Soul Reaper. At then end of the final battle every Hollow was defeated the remaining Soul Reapers got together and changed the flow of spiritual energies. Without any Hollows left the Soul Reapers could do that, change how spiritual energy worked. When people died their souls looked just like their bodies looked when they died. No soul chains, and with no soul chains that meant no more Hollows.

"Haven't you seen other people you could see though, people walking or floating around when you go outside or to the store?"

Harry nodded. "I one time I told my aunt about it, but she got angry threw me in my cupboard."

Death frowned. Slightly regretting his oath to never again kill anything that was not already dead. "What you saw was a soul that had yet to cross over. Some souls go to the soul society the instant they die others will stay in this world for a while but they cross over eventually its like trying to stand still in the middle of a large river. Eventual you can't fight it anymore and are swept away by the current, pulled by the flow of spiritual energies to the Soul Society. Its my job to keep the flow going, all I have to do is guide just a few souls across; not every person that dies."

Harry nodded in understanding.

"Now as to why to your second question. I really don't know why you have a soul chain. You see the night when your parents died you should have died as well. I don't really know why you did not die, but I went to guide your soul to the soul society. When I found you I saw that you had a soul chain and that it was still attached to your body, so you were not dead."

"Wait, you were at the car crash my parents died at?"

"Car crash?" Death asked, mostly to himself. "Oh right that's what your relatives told you happened to your family. No, Harry your parents did not die in a car crash. They died trying to defend you from a very evil man. Alright I need to tell you some things that you don't even know about yourself. Harry besides having spiritual powers you also have magical powers."

"Magic?" Harry said in wonder. Death could tell that the boy thought having magical powers was more special than spiritual powers.

"Yes, you are what would be called a wizard. Have you even notice that strange things sometimes happen around you that make your relatives angry? Like when your cupboard door unlocked itself when you had to go to the bathroom really bad, or the weeds pulled themselves that time when you were sick, and frustrated."

Harry nodded eyes unfocused thinking about what Death said.

"You see your parents were a witch and wizard they were kill by an evil wizard that tried to kill you but when he tried to kill you his magic spell bounced off of you and hit him. That's how you got that scar on your forehead."

Harry reached for his forehead to feel his scar but found that his forehead was missing the mark.

"Its on your body." Death pointed to his body laying where he left it.

Harry looked over at his body and examined his own scar. "That's from magic?"

"Yes Harry. Now spiritual powers and magic are very different when compared with each other. While magic can be very powerful only very rare forms of magic affect the soul."

"What do you mean?"

"Well I am a soul, just like the see through ghosts you have seen before. Now lets imagine that some one cast a spell and it caught your uncle's mustache on fire."

Harry laughed a little.

"Now if some one cast the same spell on me it would do nothing, absolutely nothing. The only things that can harm me are other spiritual attacks. If some one shot me with a bullet it would not harm me because I am a soul. A lot of things are different in physical form compared to soul form, even more different when you have spiritual powers."

"How so?" Harry asked

"I think this could be best explained if you got back in your body."

Harry looked a little confused. "How do I do that?"

"Oh just climb back in lay down back into it."

Harry climbed back on his body and stuck himself back… in himself.

"Cool" Harry sat up, put his hand on his chest looking for a soul chain.

"Alright Harry lets go into the kitchen quietly." Harry got out of his cupboard and followed death into the darkened kitchen. "Now right now I am in soul form and you are in physical form. Now pick up a fruit in that bowl on the table." Death pointed to a collection of fruit.

"OK." Harry picked up a banana.

"That was easy correct." Harry nodded, giving him a odd look. "Now a soul with no spiritual powers would not be able to do that. Their hand would just pass through it, just like they can pass through walls. I however am a soul with spiritual powers."

Death picked up an apple and took a bite. "Mmm juicy. Souls with no spiritual powers cannot affect the physical world, but with my powers can; just like you. Unlike you, physical attacks cannot harm me. Do you understand?"

Harry's face was scrunched up but he nodded in understanding.

"Good now its time for you to go to sleep your physical body needs its rest. You shall see me tomorrow."

* * *

Harry curled up on his bed in his cupboard after a very tiring day. Aunt Petunia had show him how to cook breakfast. He had burns on his hand from the frying pan, and he did not get to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner. Harry had slightly burnt some of the bacon, and Aunt Petunia started screaming at him for being so careless; and she said that the burnt portions were now his. Harry would have been happy to eat slightly burnt bacon but she said it was no good anymore and threw it out. Harry lay there trying to ignore his hunger when his door opened slowly. Harry looked up and smiled at the once forbidding figure.

"Harry are you alright?" Asked the dark figure in his door.

Harry put on a brave face, trying to be strong but he failed. All of the emotions from the entire day, the hate, fear and rejection all came forward all at once. Harry started to cry, he leapt forward and wrapped his small arms around the black cloaked figure and cried into the soft dark material.

Death looked down at the small child weeping on him, his heart went out to Harry. So much pain for one so young. The last Soul Reaper wanted to do something for the boy, something to comfort him. Death then had an idea. It was a crazy idea, and he knew that he should not do it. He would have gotten in trouble for it millennia ago when there were other Soul Reapers, but something in his head convince him that it was a good idea, and he could not shake the desire to help the boy.

"Harry look at me." Death commanded.

Harry sniffed and looked up at him eyes sparkling with tears.

"Would you like to go see my home we could get out of here for a while."

Harry hiccuped wiping some tears away, he nodded.

"Well then I am going to give you some of my power. Just a small amount it will allow you to be disconnected from your body but still live. You will become somewhat like me. In order to do this you must take my scythe and thrust the blade into your heart. You don't have to do this if you don't want to." Death said, some part of him hoped that the child would be frightened and decline.

"Will it hurt?" Harry asked quietly

Death shook his head, the folds of his hood swaying.

"Ok." Harry said with a smile.

Death marveled a how trusting a child could be as he pulled his weapon off his back. He held the pole horizontal with one hand, blade pointed loosely at Harry. With some trepidation Harry put his small hands around the blade. Harry looked up at Death his face in shadow from the cloak. Sensing what the boy wanted Death pulled his hood off his head. Green eyes met blue, and Harry gave a wider smile as he looked up at him. With no fear, he took a breath and pulled the blade into his chest.

Death felt power leave him as a white light enveloped the both of them.

Everything had gone exactly as plan just the right amount of power was given. Death looked down at the small figure of Harry standing before him. It was almost comical, Harry stood in a small black hakama looking exactly the part of a miniature Soul Reaper. However Death did not give him enough power to have a Zanpakutō. He would have to earn that on his own, if he even could.

Harry looked himself over spending extra time examining his feet checking out the his foot wear that actually fit. "Wow," he said in wonder. "Thank you so very much. So what do we do now?"

"Now I take you to the Soul Society, We can only stay for the night I will have to return you in the morning. Come we need to go outside to open the gate."

Harry and Death walked outside even more silent than ghosts. Death then took his scythe and like a giant key opened the gate to the Soul Society.

Harry shielded his eyes form the bright light as he stepped out of the gate. Harry looked around.

"It's day?"

"Yes the Soul Society does not keep the same time as the World of the Living."

They stood on a gigantic rock plateau. The plateau was surrounded by vast white city, in the distance you could see a tall wall that surrounded the city.

"Come." He commanded. "I live in that castle." Death pointed to a castle that was connected to the plateau by a long bridge. "In there I have everything I need, from training grounds to food, even equipment for monitoring the World of the Living."

Harry hurried after the cloaked figure. He followed beside him along the bridge, trying to see everything at once. When he looked down he did not see any people in the streets below him, everything was empty. It was strange, he thought that such a large city would be much more busy.

"Where is everybody? Are we the only ones here?"

"Yes." Death affirmed, a barely noticeable hint of sadness in his voice. "We are the only people here, in order to live here in the Seireitei you must have strong enough spirit energy. If you don't then you cannot live here. The walls surrounding this place are made of a special rock that repels spirit energy. it puts put too much stress on your soul unless you have high enough spirit energy to resist it. Sometimes people will come in here to do work for me but the can't stay, not long at least. Once hundreds of thousands of souls lived here in the but now besides myself, you are the only person with enough spirit energy to actually live here."

Death spent the rest of the time allotted to them showing Harry around, telling him about the history of the Soul Society; history long forgotten by everyone but Death himself. When time was up he took him back to his cupboard, returning him to his body in order to spend the day with his relatives in the World of the Living.

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(Author Notes) I find that in many crossovers that an author will pick two or more series that do not mix well together. In my opinion will either pass or fail depending on how the universes are combined. Many series would get a sad face on their grade school report cards. 'Does not play well with others.' You need to be true to the characters from both series, and reflect on how they would really react to a new situation with strange people with odd powers.

Ask yourself how you would react if Superman actually appeared suddenly in New York City. I'm sure that would throw the world for a loop just with that simple change.

But I have read stories where writers want to pull out the big guns and decide that they are going to make a extremely complicated crossover. For example it might be a story with Superman from D.C. Comics, Goku from Dragon Ball Z, Voldemort from Harry Potter and Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars; having a giant death match.

I would like to see who would win that fight. (My bet is Goku.) However the end result unless you have the best fiction writer EVER is a giant mess that makes little sense, and sounds like it was written on a forum page with each paragraph written by a different person. It just gets too complicated for a writer to successfully give each character any development and any possible plot is destroyed.

I plan to keep this simple a mixture of Harry Potter and Bleach. Throw Harry into Hogwarts with Soul Reaper powers and you might have a good story. Throw him in with the threat of Hollows, and Voldemort's Soul pieces: A.K.A Horocruxes. Then if I pull it off correctly I might have a great story.

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	2. Spiritual Suprises

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

(Author Notes) Here you go, more from my crazed mind. I have done some recent editing fixing mistakes, as well as adding chapter names to this story.

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Weeks past like that, every night Death would take Harry to the soul society. Telling Harry stories of the Soul Reapers and what the job of a Soul Reaper was. Stories of Hollows and how Hollows were finally defeated. Harry of course loved the stories, any child would love stories of epic battles and heroes fighting evil, but Harry enjoyed them especially. After all he had never had a bed time story told to him. Death introduce Harry to his only lasting companion in the Seireitei, a giant black dog named Grim.

Grim was some what of an oddity when it came to a soul dog. Whenever Grim went to the World of the Living humans could see him, but only people that were going to die soon. Normally Souls could not be seen or detected. However there were still a few people in the World of the Living that could see souls. That was extremely rare though, perhaps one in several million people, but Grim could be seen by everyone that was soon to die.

Months passed and Harry went to school. It was odd but the last Soul Reaper was a great mentor helping Harry in all of his studies. Harry was easily ahead of the other children when it came to scholastic knowledge. It also helped that he did not have much to do except chores. So he would often quietly study in his cupboard when he could get away from his relatives. Eventually his cousin formed a gang of like minded, think headed, overly aggressive children, who would walk around the school yard as if they owned it, shoving others off the swings so that they could sit on them and brag about grade school nefarious deeds. The other children would get out of the way and avoid the group of five knuckle heads, you did not want to be caught in the middle of them. Of course as soon as Dudleys gang was formed rhey started to pick on him, however in response to this Death began some training for Harry. Just in Hakuda, or hand to hand fighting skills to start.

"Harry you must understand that when we train in soul form it will not affect your body in the same way."

"What do you mean Sensei?" Harry asked, Death had Harry calling him Sensei.

"Well If your body gets injured and you go into soul form your soul will not have that injury. Do you understand?" Harry nodded. "However if you get injured in your soul form and you return to your body, your body will be slightly injured, a damaged soul will cause stress to the body, However your body will not have as bad as injuries, so returning to your body could save your life."

"Like when you told me how gravely injured or weakened Soul Reapers would use a Gigai?"

"You remember that, good." Death said, he was pleased to have an attentive listener." Yes, just like that. Now when we train you will get faster and stronger. Your body will as well but nearly at the same rate. Your body will never be able to do all of the things that your soul form can."

Harry trained with Death every night and went to school every day. On rare occasions Death would even join Harry at school although they did not talk much. The teachers that did notice that Harry was talking to someone when he was seemingly by himself, thought that he simply had an imaginary friend.

After a month of training, Dudley's gang had a much harder time of picking on Harry. Dudley's main sycophant Piers, the only kid in the gang fast enough to catch Harry ended up with a few bruises every time he tried to trip Harry up. He was improving greatly at his martial arts. Death even had started him in some zanjutsu with bokken, of course like everything else Death won every time.

As the relationship between Death and Harry developed they would often got into disagreements about the Dursleys. The last Soul Reaper wanted to put the fear of… well the death god put into them, but Harry said that even if they were horrible they were still family, and the only family he had. He did not wish them ill. Well maybe Dudley… and Vernon, but not much. Harry would often argue that if anything bad happened to the Dursleys they would just take it out on him, or make him clean up any mess caused by any mysterious calamity.

Death did not like it, The Dursleys treated Harry like a slave, but he could see Harry's point. Any supernatural discipline to any of the Dursleys' property would force more work on Harry. Bodily harm would be too drastic and direct confrontation should be avoided. Death did not know what to do but told himself that he would figure it out then the time was needed.

The time came when Harry was pushed down the stairs of Number 4 Privat Drive by his cousin. He broke his arm, and Harry's aunt and uncle in a unforgivable act pushed the bruised boy into his cupboard, ignoring his need for any medical treatment. If it had not been for the fact that Harry's magic healing him Vernon would have lost an arm, because of a very angry, scythe wielding Soul Reaper.

Death gathered some supplies from the soul society, he was taking matters in to his own hands, Direct contact be damned. In order for the Dursleys to learn a much needed lesson he was going to have to forgo subtlety. He did not take Harry to the Soul Society that night because of his intended justice, Death would not be talked to out of his plan. Moving to the master bedroom in the middle of the night he began his work.

The next morning Harry awoke when a loud shriek rang through the house. Bolting upright in bed, Harry prepared himself for anything. More yelling could be heard from upstairs, coming from his shrieking aunt.

"VERNON GET UP! LOOK!" Petunia screamed sounding like a siren.

Harry rubbed the sleep from his eyes and cracked the door open. There was a minute of silence, then came the sound of an upstairs door opening.

"Mum what's going on?" A scared sounding Dudley asked.

"Stay in your room Duddykins, every things fine." Petunia's voice wavered, not sounding very reassuring.

Harry could hear the master bedroom door open with a bang. "BOY! GET UP HERE NOW!" Uncle Vernon yelled down the stairs.

Harry slowly opened his door, stepped out and looked up the stairs. Uncle Vernon glared down at him, his teeth were clenched so tightly Harry was surprised one did not shatter. A vein throbbed in his forehead his face deep purple in rage.

"I didn't do anything!" Harry said reflexively, regretting the words as soon as they were out of his mouth.

"Get - Up - Here." Uncle Vernon spat each word.

Harry obeyed slowly climbing the stairs. As soon as he was in arms reach Vernon's hand shot out and grabbed Harry's arm yanking him up the rest of the stairs and towards the master bedroom. Harry was being towed by his uncle as they passed Dudley's room, his door opened wide enough for him to stick his head out and smile as Harry passed by.

Harry was shoved into the room roughly. "What do you know about this?" Uncle Vernon demanded, waving his hand around.

Harry noticed two major differences about the room. One was that the top of each of the four walls had lettering written on them. Above the door frames was written a message in what appeared to be blood, it was dark red with eerie trails coming from the bottom of the letters.

The other thing different about the room was much scarier than the first. Harry's Sensei, Death stood in a corner of the room. In his right hand he held was his scythe, his arm was fully extended parallel to the ground as the end of the scythe rested on the floor; as he stood looking extremely forbidding. Although the danger of the situation was know only to Harry, because his relatives could not see the cloaked figure in the room.

Harry's eyes went wide seeing his sensei in such a threatening posture. Death's left hand slowly came up and one finger extended that met his lips in a shushing gesture. Harry with a tinny nod looked around the room reading the message.

'_Dear Dursley family, let me introduce myself. You may call me The Janitor, my job requires me to do some cleaning of sorts. While I usually do not clean up trash like you, your actions have tempted me into expanding my practice. The way you treat your nephew is unforgivable. While I say that it is unforgivable, I mean that I find it unforgivable. However, Harry often forgives you and he is the only reason that you are receiving this friendly warning. The next time I need to remind you to be kind to certain young boys it will not be so friendly. I hope this message gets through your thick skulls. Have a good day.'_

Harry finished reading the warning his sensei had given his relatives. Uncle Vernon sensing that he was done grabbed his shoulder and shook him.

"Well, what have you to say about this!" Vernon growled.

"I did not have any involvement in this." Harry responded calmly.

Vernon's face grew slightly more purple. " If you didn't do this then you know something about this, don't you? Tell me NOW!" He yelled grabbing both shoulders and shook Harry.

Harry was not sure how to respond, but luckily he did not have to when Petunia shrieked again. She screeched out another ear splitting "LOOK!" making Harry and Vernon follow her extended finger to an antique wardrobe that had a mirror attached above it.

What Harry saw, and what his relatives saw where two very different things. Harry saw Death holding what looked like a large thick tipped red marker slowly writing another message on the mirror.

What Petunia and Vernon saw was much more terrifying as bloody letters appeared out of nowhere spelling out another message.

'_It seems that you are even more thick headed that I first thought was possible. I did say that the next warning would not be so friendly. Please do not create the need for me to warn you a third time._'

Harry saw Death step back from the mirror and slip the marker into his cloak. He waited half a minute before slamming the butt end of his scythe to the ground, shaking the floor and causing a banging noise Harry's relatives could hear.

Uncle Vernon's face drained of its purple color as he shrank in fear, looking around the room. "W-what's going on?" his voice quivered as the rhythmic pounding continued.

Harry watched as Death stopped his floor percussion, waited ten seconds and then swung the blunt end of his scythe into the mirror shattering it. Aunt Petunia covered her face as she shrieked again, as Uncle Vernon grunted and looked away. Harry however was luckily protected from any flying shards by the large mass of flesh known as his uncle, perhaps he was good for something.

No nobody moved, well that is to say that one _soul _did move. Silently passing through room not even disturbing any mirror bits on the floor the last Soul Reaper left the room. Death in an impressive show of flexibility and agility even slipped around the rotund form of Dudley as the large boy stood blocking most of the doorway. He must have arrived sometime during the thumping. Dudley stared into the room his face was drained of color his jaw hanging dumbly on his fat face.

"Um. I think I'll go for a walk, be back later." Harry said clearly, and walked out guiding Dudley slowly away from in front of the door. Death stood at the bottom of the stairs waiting for him. Harry went to his cupboard and slipped on his overly large shoes, he was out the front with his sensei before any of his relatives could regain enough sense to stop him.

* * *

Harry and Death walked to the nearby park before they spoke.

"I can't believe you did that!" Harry said, his voice stressed in poorly concealed amusement.

"I'm sorry." Death said not sounding very sorry. "But they have gotten away with abusing you for too long. You're much too nice to them, when they don't deserve your kindness."

Harry hunched his shoulders and crossed his arms. "Thank you sensei." His voice sounding sincere even if his body language did not. "But you know even if they start treating me nicely, they are most likely going to need repeated reminders or else Uncle Vernon will work up some courage and ignore what you said, then he will lay even more choirs on me for the ones I got away with because he was scared."

"Harry." Death said calmly his voice rumbling through the air. "You show much wisdom for one so young. I do not know if your uncle is capable of dramatic changes, I can only hope that this will lead to a better life for you here. Your uncle is much like his son, a bully. What easier target for him then someone defenseless? Bullies target the weak those easily frightened, because they themselves are cowards. Afraid of the unknown, the challenge, afraid of those capable of standing up and opposing them.

Bullies use fear as a means to make them seem stronger then they really are. However when that fear is turned around on them they are shown for what they truly are, an unimpressive coward.

Fear is powerful thing. Depending on the situation it can kill or save. It all depends on how it is used, how it is seen.

You must never allow fear to dominate you. I do not mean that you be fearless. A warrior with no fear will rush into battle very heroically and find himself dead very quickly. While fear itself cannot be controlled, you must control yourself when fear finds you."

Harry nodded listening to every word of wisdom from his sensei.

"Fear can make you sharper, keeping you alert and cautious. It can even make you stronger and faster, everyone runs faster when there is something chasing them. However if fear dominates you, that is when it kills. Making you dull slowing your reactions, causing you to hesitate, to slow and second guess yourself.

Wars and battles have been fought where the weapon of choice is fear. Why fight when you are convinced you cannot win. If the fear is great enough then those weak of heart will not stand to defend themselves, even if you could easily win with every one fighting. Fear will often lie to you telling that you are weaker then you truly are. If you become convinced by what it tells you then it will become your truth.

Warriors dominated by fear make foolish mistakes, turning their backs and running when they have run out of ground, dropping their weapons even if that weapon is the only thing keeping them alive. Do not lose yourself to Fear." Death said, pointing firmly at Harry.

"It is my wish that your uncle will amend his ways and treat you better. However if he does not I can use fear to control him. He does not have the willpower to overcome his own insecurities.

* * *

Weeks passed and turned into months. Every once and a while Uncle Vernon would muster up enough courage to confront Harry demanding to know who The Janitor was. Harry would just shrug and ignore him Vernon would never press the subject for long. Things did get better slightly, but at times it was just awkward. Much of the time his relatives were afraid to get too close to him. He was still given plenty of choirs whenever they thought they could get away with it.. However he was fed more, something Dudley was extremely unhappy about. It seemed that in Dudley's mind the more food that Harry got the less he was able to eat. He threw a few red face tantrums, throwing things and stomping about the house, screaming that no one cared about him.

Thankfully that did not last too long, because of a bloody message on Dudley's wall warning him about the possible dangers of children and heart attacks.

Now and then Death did send the Dursleys a warning. These warnings were often accompanied by a seemingly unexplainable destruction of property. Petunia almost fainted when a kitchen stool was sliced in half.

Harry's Soul Reaper training continued. Each night he would be taken to the Soul Society, he trained and got better in his Hakuda and Zanjutsu. He had even started on the basics of Kido. It was when training in Zanjutsu did the major change in his training happen.

Death was too fast, too experienced, too good. Harry could never land a solid hit on him. There was no time he could attack freely. No opening he could exploit without leaving himself open to a deadly counter. It was almost as if he was being played with. He would either attack to fiercely and unbalance himself of too slow and gain nothing.

Death was holding his bokken in a lazy one handed stance waiting for Harry to make the first move. He did, Slicing in a right horizontal power move intended to bat his sensei's bokken away. Death anticipated the power strike and pulled back slightly on his practice sword. Harry's strike swung millimeters away, passing harmlessly through air. Death countered aiming for Harry's now exposed shoulder. Harry quickly stepped back out of range of the attack, braced his back foot and bounced forward again, but as he prepared an overhand strike time slowed. He felt like he was moving through water, not moving as fast as he should.

"What are you waiting for?" A melodious voice called to him in his head.

The practice field faded, and Harry found himself in a large grassy plain with one huge tree in the center. The field stretched out further then the eye could see flat and empty. The only thing you could see besides the grass was the tree.

"Why do you hesitate?" The same melodious voice again asked him.

Harry looked around there was no one near by. Nothing except the large tree.

"A tree is talking to me?" Harry wondered out loud. As soon as he finished the question laughter filled the air around him. It sounded more like the trickle of water then actual laughter.

Before Harry could say more a large bird flew out of the tree and soared towards him. It was a such a beautiful bird its feathers were mostly yellow but had a white underbelly and even some copper looking plumage at the tips of the wings. However that was not the strangest thing about its feathers it looked like static electricity sparked and arced in and around the feathers themselves.

"Your slow." The bird said as it landed.

Harry was taken back slightly at the talking bird, but he shook his head and recovered his lost wits. Enough strange things had happened to him he should be more used to oddities by now.

"That's a nice thing to say when we have just met." Harry calmly said to the strange bird.

"Why are you holding back? I know your much faster than this."

"I'm not holding back sensei is just too fast." Harry argued.

The bird sighed. "Is it because you lack the will to draw your spiritual power out or is it that you lack the ability? Well I guess that is to be expected because what Soul Reaper is whole without a sword. I will help you because it seems you are incomplete without me. Together we live, together we fight. Now call my name."

Harry was suddenly back in the training grounds. His attack coming from above, but Death was already prepared with a counter. "Koukuudenkou!!" Harry screamed.

There was a flash of yellow light, and once that vanished Death stood there holding half of a bokken. His hood was back and a look of shock was on his face. Then the shock vanished and he smiled down at Harry. "So you have manifested your own Zanpakuto, well done."

Harry looked down at his at the blade in his hand. The bright silver blade ran down to a circular hand guard with lightning bolts decorating it and the handle was wrapped in dark green.

"Now we can start your real training." Death said grabbing his scythe.

* * *

Years pasted Harry's skill increased dramatically, Harry became very good at Kido it was probably because Kido was Death's worst art, and Harry could use it against him. Harry learned the Flash Step but was not nearly as good as his sensei in Hoho. In Zanjutsu he had been able to release Koukuudenkou's shikai release, but he did not really know how good he was at swordplay. After all he only had one person to spar against, and no other opponents. Death was too good to actually test his true skills against, in order to compare power.

He liked Kido the best because, he could still perform it while in his physical state. A little healing Kido every once and a while or using a quick Bakudo to trip up a member of Dudley's gang, as long as no one noticed or connected it back to him, Death did not mind him using a little Soul Reaper powers.

Harry was nine years old he was not what you would expect from a normal nine year old. Harry's life with the Dursleys and his Soul Reaper training had molded him into a very mature young boy. The Dursleys were still insufferable acting as foul as ever. However they could never get away with some of the despicable offences they did before. Harry did get Dudley's second bedroom after Vernon received a bloody message written on his windshield while he was driving.

Dudley's gang had stopped tormenting Harry altogether, and instead of Harry avoiding them they avoided him. It probably because Harry could beat up the entire gang on his own. However that did not stop Dudley from picking on any kids that befriended Harry whenever he could. The other children at school were nice to Harry but only behind Dudley's back, never choosing Harry first for teams, even though he was the best player.

There were times that Harry would be force to defend himself or others from Dudley's gang and give each of them a few welts and bruises. Dudley once returned home with a black eye, and after seeing it Petunia rushed over and started fawning over him, calling the school demanding that they control the bullies that did it to him. I was humorous her reaction about being told that it was actually Dudley that often caused fights with other children. She started screaming in the phone saying that her child would never do such a thing, and how dare they tell such lies.

It was odd Dudley never told his parents that it was Harry that gave him his injury, either he was too scared or too embarrassed to tell that Harry beat up his entire gang all of whom were bigger than him.

Dudley did have a few insights of wisdom but it never seemed to last. No matter how many bloody messages or thorough defeats the message never seemed to get passed his thick scull. He would return to his old self after less than a week. He even did not learn when his trousers caught fire after lying to a teacher, blaming Harry for something he did. Harry felt bad for his magic getting out of control, but Dudley did deserver it. Harry fondly recalled Dudley hopping around trailing flames the teachers yelling at him to stop, drop, and roll. Eventual Dudley kicked his own trousers off leaving him standing in the playground with just his underwear on.

Vernon was especially hostile he almost never did anything besides grumbling and giving empty threats, but Harry and Death where sure that it was only a matter of time before he blew his great big purple top. If that happened dramatic steps may need to be taken.

Vernon was always terrified whenever Death, or the Janitor gave him a warning. However after a few days he would recover from his fear and act sour, never missing a chance to yell at Harry for any possible reason.

Harry grew to accept this he ignored his relatives keeping to himself whenever he was at home. At school the other kids were kind to Harry only from a distance. Harry never had a close friend with any school mates, unlike Dudley he had never gone over to another fiends house for a sleep over or anything of that sort.

It really did not bother Harry that much, he had is sensei as company and support. He even could go into the sanctity of his own mind, and talk to his Zanpakuto, Koukuudenkou when he really needed to get away. He often kept his mind busy reading alone in the day training at night in the soul society., but unforeseen changes were coming to the spiritual world.

* * *

One day Harry was cooking breakfast for the Dursleys. Harry still on occasion cooked for the Dursleys, not nearly as much as he used to. Petunia was actually helping him. Aunt Petunia had actual become less insufferable. The Janitor's warnings seemed to actually have a affect on her. She was probably the most terrified at the unexplainable happenings that accompanied any warnings. She also seemed to get the connection between treating Harry nicely and not getting any bloody messages. Eventually Harry and Aunt Petunia came to an unspoken agreement of mutual benefaction. Petunia did not act cruel to Harry and Harry still helped around the house. Also it seemed that treating Harry well meant that none of her lovely possessions were destroyed by the Janitor.

Although Aunt Petunia never went out of he way to help Harry or stifle any antagonism from her husband or son, she was tolerable.

Harry was flipping some bacon when a black butterfly fluttered in through the open kitchen window and circled around Harry's head. Aunt Petunia saw it she started screaming. Petunia hated bugs. All types of bugs, even butterflies.

"Calm down Aunt Petunia." Harry said, exasperated. "Its just a butterfly it can't hurt you."

"Kill it! Kill it!" She screamed, backing into a corner and covering her face.

Harry shook his head, thinking it very foolish anyone would be afraid of a butterfly. "I'll take care of it."

Harry brought his hands up in a cage shape preparing to snatch it out of the air, when the butterfly fluttered down and landed on his finger.

As soon as it landed the voice of his sensei filled his head.

"_Harry some things have come up and I will not be able to come and bring you to the Soul Society. I have found another soul with a chain. This one is not like you because his chain was severed. However this is very disturbing there might be other souls like this one that I do not know about. I can only hope that it is not as I fear, that the new spiritual order is not breaking down. I am doing some research, and I have sent Grim to search the world of the living for any other souls with chains. I will contact you again soon_. _Be on your guard."_

Harry shook his head to clear it of the message. Harry looked down, he recalled Death telling him stories about them but had never seen them or used them before, a hell butterfly. The hell butterfly lazily flapped its wings a few times before fluttering off Harry's extended finger and back out the window.

This was concerning if souls started to get soul chain's back then Hollows could return, something the world was much better off without. Harry prayed that was not the case.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Author Notes) I beg forgiveness from any people out there that are fluent in Japanese, the name of Harry's Zanpakuto means something like Flying Lightning. At least I think it should, It was the best I could do with a quick English to Japanese translation. I'm sure I butchered the Japanese language, so please forgive me. This is why I don't us Japanese for my jutsu in my other story. I basically use all of the Japanese words used from the English dub of Bleach. Such as Kido (Spirit Way) or Bakudo (Way of Binding). If you have any need for translations PM me or look at the Bleach Wiki.


	3. Searches and Sendings

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

(Author Notes) Here you go a nice long chapter for you, this one will help explain the differences between spiritual powers and magic.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Death did not return for training the next several days. When he did show up it was in one of the most unexpected circumstances. Harry was out for recess when the gate to the Soul Society opened up in the middle of an empty basket ball court. Death stepped out of the glowing portal looking around.

As soon as Harry saw Death exit the portal he ran as fast as he could up to his teacher, ignoring any odd looks from any school mates and teachers.

"Sensei, Why are you here now? What has happened?" He asked frantically.

"I'm sorry Harry right now there is not enough time to explain right now, I will tell you about it on the way. Right now I am too busy." Death said, as he pulled on the red fingerless glove, grabbed Harry's shoulder and pulled his Soul Reaper form out.

Harry looked at the falling figure of his body as it limply collapsed to the ground. He straitened his hakama as he watched teachers rush towards his body, not seeing the two figures standing over it.

"You know Sensei, I'm going to have to deal with this when we get back." Harry said blandly.

"I'm sorry." Death said, not sounding very regretful. "Come lets go we have much to do. You can deal with this when you return, it should not be too challenging."

Harry nodded, as the two figures step though the gate leaving the World of the Living headed towards the Soul Society.

"So what is this about." Harry asked, as the two of them stepped out onto the barren plateau

"Things are bad." Death said gravely. "How bad I'm not sure. Right now it seems that the new spiritual order might be breaking down until it completely collapses returning the world back to the original order."

"Ok, that's worst case scenario." Harry said, following after Death as he walked towards the edge of the plateau. "If that happens then Hollows will return and the lives of billions put into jeopardy. What if it's not as bad as you fear?"

"It could be a temporary glitch, some small mistake that will correct itself. You and this new soul have been the only ones with soul chains in millennia. Now, there could be others that I don't know about, others that the flow of spiritual energies has not affected, I have been working in order to ensure that I find any of these souls and make sure they do not become Hollows."

"This new soul, does he or she have any spiritual pressure?" Harry asked.

"No, he is nothing like you. No spiritual pressure, died of natural causes at the age of 82. His soul chain was severed, so he is truly dead. If there are others that I don't know about then there could be the possibility that they have already turned into Hollows. I truly hope that is not the case because it takes such a long time for souls to turn completely into Hollows. I have been trying to get some of the old equipment up and working. Years ago the Department of Research and Development had a way of detecting Hollows that crossed from Heuco Mundo into the World of the Living. If I can get that working it could help me stop any problems before they start, warning me of any Hollows showing up."

Harry understood the situation completely if the new spiritual order suddenly collapsed then the newly dead souls would have no way to the Soul Society. Two Soul Reapers spending every minute of the day guiding souls across would hardly make a dent in the amount still stuck in the World of the Living. Eventually Hollows would appear, then eat the other trapped souls creating more Hollows. In the end the World of The Living and then The Soul Society would be overwhelmed in a wave of screaming white masks.

"Grim is searching the World of the Living for any other souls with chains. I can only hope he does not find any."

"Sensei, What will we do?" Harry asked. "If the new spiritual order collapses, what _can_ we do?"

"Right now the situation is not as grave as it seems." Death said, turning and putting a reassuring hand on Harry's shoulder. "If the situation stays like this or gets slightly worse it will be fine. If a few Hollows show up or even a hundred I will be able to maintain order by myself. Heuco Mundo is empty now and if any Hollows show up I can go clear them out before there are too many. As long as the new order does not collapse completely we can control this situation until we find a way to correct it."

Harry smiled, the situation might be grave but he refused to let the fear of what might happen to control him. "Sensei you know that I will help you with anything, just say the word and I will be there."

Death's smile was hidden in the shadows of his cowl. "You don't know how reassuring that is Harry. I might need your help in the future, in fact I have played with the idea of reinstating project Spearhead; just in case."

Harry gave Death an odd look not knowing the terminology.

"If you might remember I one time mentioned modified souls. It may happen that I have no choice but to revive the abandoned project." Harry recalled hearing about mod souls and how they would be used to reanimate dead bodies, super powering them in order to fight Hollows. He did not like the idea but it could prove to be necessary.

Death was guiding Harry though the Seireitei to places he had never been before. He had to admit that even though there was no one living or taking care of the place it did not look too bad: a broken sidewalk a crumpling wall here of there, but a lot less then you would expect from thousands of years of being abandoned.

"Here we are." Death said. "The Department of Research and Development." The building was quite impressive aside from the gloomy atmosphere it seemed to have around it."

Harry follow after his Sensei as he opened a large door and entered the building. I was strange, the structure was dark and the cold air smelled stale. They were in a large main hallway with a high ceiling and lead off to many other door ways. Death walked over to one of them that led down a circular flight of stairs. Harry could barely see as he followed after him. After a seemingly very long decent they eventually came to a large room filled with computer equipment. The monitors that were lit cast a pale blue light around the room illuminating a giant mess. Wires and other electrical parts all around the room were in disarray, they also had a thick layer of dust on them.

"Well doesn't this look lovely." Harry said, sarcastically.

"I know." Death sighed. "You should have seen this place when I first got here. Anyway while I have been working on this equipment I have also been working on a little gift for you. It's time you were a little more self dependant." Death picked up a brightly colored cylindrical object off a nearby table and tossed it at Harry.

The object rattled as it flew through the air. "Soul Candy?" Harry questioned as he caught and examined it. A happy looking duck smiled up at him.

"Sorry I could not get a better container for it. The non-existent Woman's Association still having their will enforced after all these years." Death said slightly exasperated. "That's gikongan or a replacement soul, eat one of those when you are in your body and your Soul Reaper form will pop out. I tried my best to program the gikongan to act as closely like you as I could, no guarantees though."

"That's reassuring." Harry said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I don't know if I like the idea of something else in control of my body."

"Don't worry it will be fine. I also had to get these working so that you could access and open the gate to the Soul Society yourself. So now you can come and go as you please, without me coming to get you."

"Thank you very much Sensei." Harry said, looking down at soul candy container in his hand."

"Alright now go back to the gate and take care of your body. You may return here if you wish, but use the gikongan. Also you must be very careful with it. Gikongan cannot be used for extended periods of time, and also if anyone else eats one it could kill them. I took the liberty of putting a warning on it for everyone else."

Harry turned over the Soul Candy container to see a bright red warning label with big black letters. **'WARNING, DO NOT EAT THIS, UNLESS YOU WANT TO DIE!!!**' The big bold warning was a little over the top but he could see it was necessary, but the fine print bellow the warning seemed like over kill. '_Seriously do not eat this.'_

"Thank you again Sensei. I will go take care of my body and then I will return swiftly." Harry said, leaving the room.

Death's eyes followed him as he left, he sighed and went back to work repairing the extremely old equipment.

Harry got back to the World of the Living and found the playground empty. It took him a while to track down his body. He was in the hospital all hooked up to machines with the constant beep, beep of his pulse. Harry sighed even though he could deal with the situation he certainly did not want to.

Then he had an idea, opening his body's mouth he popped a soul candy in it. The gikongan took control of his body as his eyes fluttered open. "Hey, there boss!" said the replacement Harry.

"Shh, keep it down." Harry said, slightly annoyed that his body sounded far too excited for being in a hospital.

"Alright here his the situation…" Harry started then paused. "Umm, what should I call you?"

"I don't know, whatever you want to call me is fine for now."

"Uh well, I think I'll call you Gigan for now. Is that Ok?"

The replacement soul used Harry's face to smile and nod.

"Alright, the situation is this, You're in the Hospital. Aunt Petunia should hopefully be here soon to check on you or whatever. As soon as you can get out of the hospital, go home and act normal. Understood?"

Gigan nodded. "Get out, go home, act exactly like you would. Don't worry I was made to do this. Come back soon Ok!?"

Harry nodded, still thinking that it was a fairly good version of himself just a little too excited about everything.

"I'm going back to the Soul Society, good luck." Harry said, as he left. Hoping that he would not come back to find the situation worse."

The next few months Death and Harry worked frantically trying to find a solution to the possible breakdown of the new spiritual order. They spent hours researching and studying the possible changes to the flow of spiritual energies. Grim was almost constantly searching the World of the Living for any souls with chains pf fate that they might have missed.

Death and Harry even went to Heuco Mundo searching for any anomalies, namely Hollows. They found nothing just the bare, empty limbo world.

Harry spent almost all of his free time in the Soul Society, using Gigan often. The gikongan proved to be quite good a imitating Harry. He fixed the problem in the hospital promptly, which was a big help. Gigan could cook, clean and do most of the things the real Harry could do. However Harry did not want to use him too much, he went to school and kept up with his studies himself still wanting to live his own life.

However after months of hassle and stress they found nothing. No new souls with chains showed up, no Hollows, nothing. It seemed that the flow of spiritual energies was still stable, or at least they hoped so.

Everything returned to normal by Harry's tenth birthday. Death and Harry would often train together at night, but sometimes they would just relax and enjoy each other's company. Harry was very content with his life, even with the horrible relatives, but changes were coming to Harry's life. After all he was an extremely special boy, and the last Soul Reaper was not the only one that held interest about him.

------------------------------------------------

It was a month before Harry's birthday, things continued to change for Harry in the world of the living. He had completed his last grade at the elementary school. Harry had graduated top of the class, while Dudley was dead last.

However Dudley was proudly getting prepared for his next year at the private school Smeltings, the same school Vernon had gone to when he was younger. Harry remembered having to watch Dudley parade around in a hideously colored school uniform. It was beyond him how any respectable school could have straw hats and maroon tailcoats as a uniform. The knobbly cane like stick topped it off, all else that was needed would be a monocle and Dudley was ready for a day at the races.

I was unknown how Dudley had been accepted to a supposedly distinguished private school. Harry was sure that Vernon had greased a few hands to get Dudley in. After all the rotund ball of lard was dumb as a rock, actually the rock might beat him at a game of checkers. He had only survived grade school because of grade curves and parents that were in complete denial.

Harry woke up one morning after training in the Soul Society, a terrible smell drifted from the kitchen. He entered and noticed a large tub in the sink fill with what looked like cloth and grey liquid.

"Aunt Petunia, what is in the sink?"

She gave him and odd look and replied. "That's your new school uniform."

Harry rolled his eyes, it was just another case of his relatives trying to get away with as little as possible. "Your dying Dudley's old clothes to make me a uniform?" Aunt Petunia nodded. "Isn't that jut more hassle than going to a cheap store and getting some grey clothes? Anyway there might be a size requirement for student uniforms, and unless you can shrink his clothes as well they won't fit me."

Petunia gave Harry an indignant look. "Never mind." Harry said exasperatedly, and sat down at the table for some food.

With The Janitor's help his life had been much better than it could have been. He even owned some pairs of cloths that fit him, but he still had to swim in Dudley's old cast offs from time to time. One of the great things was that he had shoes that actually fit him.

Harry was still fairly short for his age, but he would not be considered scrawny. The extra food and Soul Reaper training had helped form Harry into a strong healthy young boy.

Harry tried to imagine his life without the help of Death. He did not like the mental picture he thought up. Things were much better than they could have been. Harry was given more freedom, he had just wiggled out of going on Dudley's birthday trip to the zoo. He got to stay at home and relax, not having to stay quiet and keep on guard the entire time he was with his relatives and Piers Polkiss. Dudley's gang had yet to get any real revenge on Harry after all these years. The chance that Dudley and his main sycophant Piers would be alone with Harry, and that they would be watched over by his parents and there extreme favoritism It should have been an opportunity that they could pester Harry and them not get beaten up by him.

Vernon came in and sat down to the table with a grunt, the chair he sat down on creaked ominously as he pick up the paper. Dudley came in a greedy look in his piggy eyes. Dudley had taken to carrying his smelting stick with him at all times banging it into anything and everything like he was blind and needed to make sure the path was clear.

The mail slot clicked indicating the arrival of some the post. "Mail's her," grunted Vernon. "Somebody get it"

"Mah 'arry geg-ih'." Dudley mumbled, his face stuffed with bacon and eggs.

"Go, get it boy."

"I'll get it later." Harry said.

"Poke him with you smelting stick!" Vernon ordered.

Dudley grabbed his sorry excuse for a cane and thrust it at Harry, who in a show of speed intercepted the stick grabbed and twisted; wrenching it out of Dudley's grasp.

"Hey?!" Dudley whined dumbly.

"Fine I'll get it." Harry got up and walked away propping the smelting stick up beside the door far out of Dudley's reach, the poor piggy would need to get up and walk for his little toy. Harry picked up the post not even bothering to look at it, taking it back to the kitchen he tossed it down in front of Vernon.

Harry had returned to his morning meal when he heard a odd sound come from his Uncle. Vernon made a gurgling choking like noise. Harry looked up, in Vernon's hand was a piece of yellowish paper folded in three.

"P-PETUNIA!" Vernon yelled, his voice quivering.

Harry looked down, still on the table was an open envelope made out of the same yellow paper. The envelope had a wax seal on it and Harry's sharp eyes pick out the address.

Mr. H. Potter

Smallest bedroom

4 Pivet Drive

Little Whinging

Surry

Harry stood up after reading the address. "Hey! That's my letter!" He protested.

"I want to see." Dudley said loudly and made a snatch at the letter.

Vernon stood up and pulled away. "Out." He gasped, lifting the letter above his head as Dudley hopped around under him reaching for the it.

"That's my letter, you have no right to keep it!" Harry exclaimed.

"OUT!" He yelled much more forcefully. Vernon keeping one of his hands uplifted, he shoved, poked, and prodded Harry and Dudley out of the room with his other, just as Petunia entered the room.

As soon as the door slam closed Dudley rushed to the key hole to listen to his parents talk. Harry however rushed up to his room, as soon as he was out of sight he pulled out his Soul Candy container and popped a gikongan in his mouth. Harry's Soul Reaper form was ejected from his body. "Stay here." He ordered and did not even wait for any confirmation from Gigan as he went down stairs and left out the front door, Dudley not even noticing the door silently moving.

Harry quickly circled around the house and opened the back kitchen door, his relatives talking in stressed hushed tones. Petunia and Vernon did not see him enter the room, only the door opening mysteriously. Petunia looked annoyed and stepped up and closed the door.

"As I was saying what are we going to do, should we answer _them_?" She said the last word like it was some sort of disease.

The letter was left open on the kitchen table as Harry walked up to it, unseen by his relatives.

"We won't do anything," Vernon said, "it's best not to respond."

"Are you sure Vernon?" Petunia asked skeptically.

"We promised ourselves that we would put a stop to it. This nonsense with The Janitor is bad enough, but I will not have him going to a school for freaks, and I'm sticking to my guns. Vernon Dursley is not going down with out a fight."

While his relatives were talking Harry was reading his letter. In large green ink letter told the name of the school that Harry had been accepted to also the name of the school's headmaster who seemed to have more titles than his sensei.

'_Hogwarts that's an odd name. What does it mean await your owl?_' Harry thought to himself. Harry had not though much on much on his own magical powers he had never had the chance to practice with them. He really did not want to try it around the house incase something went wrong. It was impossible for him to explore magic in the Soul Society because while his spiritual powers were directly from his soul and tied to his body when he was in his own body. Magical powers, as he had found out were from his magical core that was only in the body. So whenever he was in soul form he had no magic, not that he was extremely concerned about it. Besides the random bursts of magic when he experienced strong emotions, Harry had little knowledge of his magic.

Now that Harry thought about it he was quite disappointed in himself for not knowing more. Magic was a part of him and he should know more about it, he had been taught '_know yourself and know your enemy_'. Well he had just failed in a part of know yourself.

Harry noticed that there were two pages to the letter but before he could discretely move the top page his relatives finished their talk. Vernon picked up the letter like it was some sort of spider took it and burned it.

Harry shook his head and he passed out the same way he came as Petunia gave a indignant huff and shut the door forcefully. Stepping into the back yard Harry reached behind him and unsheathed his Zanpakutō off his back. Centering his spiritual energy, he thrust his blade forward and the tip disappeared into nothingness. "OPEN!" Harry cried as he twisted his sword.

The bright gate to the Soul Society appeared in front of him and he stepped through arriving at the barren plateau in the Seireitei, it was night in the Soul Society. Harry closed his eyes and extended his senses trying to feel out the spiritual pressure of his sensei. Death was in the near vicinity he was actually traveling towards him across the bridge. Harry opened his eyes, and jogged to his sensei soon reaching him.

"Hello Harry I was surprised to feel you come here, is something wrong?" Death asked in his deep rumbling voice.

"No Sensei everything is fine, but I have had an interesting morning in the World of the Living." Harry replied.

"Hmm," Death mused. "Come with me and tell me about it, I am heading into the World of the Living a soul needs guidance across."

"Yes, Sensei." He said.

Harry and Death went to the World of the Living while he told everything about his morning, and about the school he was accepted at.

"Sensei, what do you know about magic?"

"Quite a bit actually. I'm sorry I did not talk to you about it sooner." Death said. "Wizards have separated themselves off from the rest of the world, using magic to concealing the fact they exist from all others who do not have magical powers. It was not always like that only in the past thousand years or so, have they concealed themselves. Once it was well know that they existed but the population of those with magic is so small that they were not encountered much, but were often ostracized when they were found."

Harry nodded listening intently.

"Back with the old spiritual order it was not uncommon that magic users would have high spiritual energy, but not all of them had it. In fact some wizard did help us Soul Reapers deal with Hollows from time to time but only those wizards with spiritual powers. Because Normal magic was complete useless on Hollows or any other spirit beings. That was so long ago however that I doubt that even the magical community has any records of Hollows or Soul Reapers. When the flow of spirit energy was changed by us Soul Reapers, magic changed slightly as well, it seemed to mix slightly. How exactly they affect one another I don't know, but it is such a loose connection that is barely noticeable, only extremely rare magic can affect souls?"

Harry nodded knowing about how physical things like magic or bullets would not harm him.

"Well newly dead souls that have died in an area of high magical power are not affected the same way by the flow of spiritual energy. They are protected from the pull, and therefore can resist coming to the Soul Society indefinably. Souls will also become visible to every one in high magical areas, this would be a rare form of magic because only a few locations in the world have high enough magical energy."

"I'm not sure I understand Sensei." Harry said.

"That's alright." Death said. "When a soul stays in a location of strong magic, eventually even normal people with no spiritual energy will be able to see them. Some how the magic will light them up."

"No what I mean by I don't understand is, if they can stay in the World of the living with out being pulled to the Soul Society why have you not gone and preformed a Konso on them?"

"Because Harry I don't have it in me. Unless it is absolutely necessary I prefer not to force a soul into crossing over. Some of the souls in the magical community have been there for hundreds of years; they are so terrified of the unknown that they do anything to avoid it. It's sad actually to be so completely controlled by fear it even affects them so strongly in death."

"However there is one thing about magic that does concern me. In the magical world there is something called a Dementor, it's the closest thing to a Hollow there is today. Dementor's feed on positive feelings, they drain happiness away from their targets leaving only bad memories. It is strange they look quite like me when I am wearing my cloak but have the desire to feed on souls." Death slightly chuckled, "They give me a bad name."

Harry hated the sound of Dementors as his hand twitched subconsciously up towards his Zanpakutō.

Death's voice returned to his dark deep voice. "Dementor's are partial spirit beings and also beings of magic. Only wizards are able to see them because the fact they are partly magic, humans without magical powers cannot see them at all. Since they are partial spirit creatures wizards have a hard time dealing with them. However Kido and our Zanpakutō can kill them. I have tired many times to wipe them all out but I cannot, they always come back soon after destruction. Whether they can't be destroyed completely or new ones take there place I am not sure. It might be that there is some sort of balance necessary or energy that if its not in Hollows it has to go somewhere, perhaps Dementors. That's something I should research now that we have the Department fixed up a bit. Other than what I have mentioned there is not much about magic that is worth noting because it would not affect our work." Death said finally. "Speaking of work here is the spirit we need to guide across."

The aforementioned spirit was floating half a foot above the ground in an abandoned park near the road. He looked very confused as he glanced around and at himself, frightened at the sight of his appearance. He was a man that looked to be in his forties, his soul was frozen in the state of how he died. One leg was twisted and bent at an odd angle and the side of his head was painted red with blood. If Harry had to guess he would say that the man was hit by a car.

Death stepped up to the soul. "I wish you a good morning sir, although it seems as if that is not the case." He greeted the soul in his deep smooth voice.

The man twitched and tuned to him his face flashed several expressions, surprise, confusion, and then relief. "Thank goodness." The man sighed. "What is going on here? I have been here for an hour trying to get help but everyone is ignoring me. Can't they see I need medical attention?"

"I'm afraid that they are not ignoring you sir, they just can't see you, and it's too late for medical treatment your dead." Death said flatly in a very matter of fact tone.

"What?" The man laughed nervously. "Don't be silly I can't be dead-" his voice trailed off, and he looked scared. However he shook his head and returned to his determined look. "Who are you two anyway is this some sort of joke?"

"No sir, this is no joke. You may call me The Grim Reaper and this is my apprentice." He said gesturing towards Harry. "I assure you this is very real, you are dead."

The man shook his head frantically. "No NO, I can't be dead. I have a wife and two kids! What's going to happen to them? I can't go right now! Isn't there something I can do? Some way you can fix this? Please I'll do anything! PLEASE!" He was growing louder and more flustered with each sentence.

Harry looked down and shook his head slightly. He had been to a few soul burials, but it was often like this. The soul would beg and plead, or yell and threaten. It was rare for a soul to be accepting of their own demise.

"No Sir." Death said. "You are dead and there is nothing that can change that. I am here to guide your soul to the other side."

The man looked like he was about to start yelling when Harry stepped forward. "Please Sir." Harry said. "Try to understand, there is nothing that can be done."

The man grew quite it seemed like he was humbled, and silenced by Harry who looked so young. He spent several moments looking at the ground before he said. "But, but what about my family."

"I'm sorry that's not our job, I'm sure they will get by without you." Harry tried to comfort him.

"Care to do the honors, Harry?" Death asked beside him.

Harry nodded and pulled out his Zanpakutō, the man recoiled slightly. "Don't worry this won't hurt a bit." Harry smiled up at the man.

"I'm scared." He whispered.

"There is nothing for you to fear. You are going to the Soul Society, and your body will return to how it should be. This is just a natural thing that must take its course. Fair well." Harry finished reaching up and touching the pommel of his blade to the man's forehead. The man glowed bright blue and sank into the ground and disappeared. Harry could understand what Death had meant when he had said that he did not have it in him to force Konso on a soul. Unless it was necessary he would not want to do it either.

"Very well done." Death praised. "Come let us return you to your home. You do plan to go to this school for magic if possible don't you?"

"I would like to." Harry confessed. " I have to be ready by September first, but I don't think Uncle Vernon likes the idea."

"I'm sure that The Janitor could help if necessary, "Death said nonchalantly." I have to warn you though, I did some research on you when I first found you alive all those years ago. I wanted to know about your background, it might have given me some clues about why you were alive. It seems that you are very well know in the magical community. I guess you would be considered famous, they don't know how it happened, all they know is that somehow you survived and defeated a evil wizard, Voldemort."

Death had told Harry of Voldemort, with Harry's unique outlook on life and death, Voldemort seemed like just a big glorified bully. Your outlook on evil megalomaniacs really changes when you are a Soul Reaper, and it helped that he could not be harmed by anything except other spirit creatures.

However he did not like the idea of being famous, being a Soul Reaper and having to live with his relatives almost his entire life had taught him to be stealthy and inconspicuous, famous people were often easily noticed, opposite of what he was used to. Harry had even meet some one that would have been considered famous, of course she was dead at the time, but out of all the Konsos he had ever been at that had to have been the most annoying. She had been a popular actress staring in several films one of them even Harry had seen. She had been killed in some accident involving mixing drugs and alcohol, but without a inebriated body to cloud her mind her soul was quite aware of the situation. She reminded Harry a lot of Dudley how everything had to go her way. How she was not dead because she did not believe it. She even threatened Death that she would get her lawyers and sue the pair of Soul Reapers. Eventually her soul was grudgingly guided over to the Soul Society, but it gave Harry a bad impression of famous people.

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(Author notes) For any one wondering, Death is a OC, he is not from the Bleach series. In fact there are no characters from the Bleach series in this story, only ideas and themes.

Death is what my idea of what the Grim Reaper from western ideology and taking him and doing my best to explain how he would be a Soul Reaper or Shinigami from Japanese ideology, just mixing the two ideas a bit.


	4. Death Decends on Diagon Alley

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

(Author Notes) Please enjoy and review.

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Harry had returned to his body and afterwards Vernon tried to explain away the letter as just an accidental mailing. However the next day another letter addressed to Harry arrived in the post. Death had predicted that this would happen, and he planned out an intervention.

"He's got another one! Mr. Potter, smallest bedroom 4 Privet Drive." Dudley called from the front hall after he was sent to get the mail.

Vernon jumped from his seat with very impressive speed for a fat man. It was quite humorous how Dudley and Vernon had a fierce but short wrestling match over the pieces of paper, but half way through an eerie banging filled the house. Unseen by the Dursleys was Death, bashing the end of his scythe onto the floor.

"W-w-w-what's going on d-dad?" Dudley stuttered.

Before Vernon could answer red lettering appeared on a nearby wall. '_I'm here._' The letters read. '_I believe that letter is not for you. You should give it to its proper recipient"_

The bloody letters oozed down the wall. Vernon was white as he read the words, but he shook his head and looked at Harry. "Boy, I've had enough of this Janitor business. You are going to tell me what you know or so help me." Vernon let the threat hang.

Harry tried to look as innocent as possible, he gave a shrug. "I don't know anything about this, why don't you ask him, it seems he's not stupid." Harry lied; everything was going according to the plan.

Vernon gave a sour look at Harry, then looked around the room a large frown on his face. "Alright Janitor," he spat the words. "What are you and why do you care about the boy?"

Several seconds passed before Death started writing. '_Vernon Dursley, I find you are less intelligent than the average gorilla. I have already told you I am The Janitor, as for why I care for Harry. I am a guardian of sorts for him. I already know what the contents of the letters are, and your ignorance is astounding. Don't you know that you have actually been counteracting your efforts, by trying to suppress his abilities you are in fact causing them to react more_.'

You could almost see the wheels turning in Vernon's head as he read the bloody words.

'_This school offers the chance for you to separate yourselves from each other for nine and a half months out of the year. Now give him the letter and I will keep this a friendly warning._'

Vernon looked around once again then glared at Harry then flicked his hand forward toward Harry holding out the letter.

"Here," he growled." I'm not paying for any of this nonsense, find your own way there."

"What's going on?" Dudley whined. "What does it mean by Harry's abilities, I want to read that letter."

"Dudley stay here." Vernon commanded as Harry went up stairs to his room.

* * *

The next day Death took Harry to a place in London that he knew about called Diagon Alley it was a hidden magical shopping center. The entrance to Diagon Alley was suppose to be sealed in a way that non magical people could not see it. However it looked like some run down old pub, "The Leaky Cauldron?" Harry asked skeptically.

Unseen to the rest of the world was a tall black cloaked man beside him. "Yes, that is where the entrance is."

Harry crept into the pub, it was actually better looking on the inside than on the outside, but not by much. The bartender was behind the counter scrubbing a tumbler with a soiled dish rag.

"Hello there young sir, how can I help you today?" The bartender asked cheerfully.

"I'm looking to get into Diagon Alley." Harry said looking around the pub.

"Of course, right this way." He came around from behind the bar and headed to the side of the room. "Are you by yourself?"

"Kind of, but not really." He tried to tell the truth but had a hard time doing so.

"Alright," he said giving a bewildered look at the boy. "If you need to remember how to get in just member three up and two across from this trashcan." He said tapping a brick with Harry could only assume was a wand.

Just as the hole was forming in the wall a gaggle of redheads were heading the opposite direction towards The Leaky Cauldron.

"Hello Tom, how are you doing?" Asked a plump woman that was obviously the mother of the swarm of children.

"Oh I'm fine of course. How's the Weasley lot today?"

Harry not wanting to dally maneuvered around the family and with a quick, "Thank you sir," was on his Harry walked away he could still hear the small talk between the two adults. "We're fine Tom, Who was that?"

"Don't know." The bartender Tom replied.

"Is he alone? He shouldn't be by himself."

"I'm not sure if he is alone, he said he wasn't really, whatever that means."

When he was out of auditory range he whispered to the Soul Reaper beside him. "How are we going to pay for all the things on the list" I'm doubt they will accept money from the Soul Society."

"Your parents were fairly well off, I hope we will be able to access an account that was left for you." Death said.

They continued walking down the street, on their way to a very impressive white structure. '_Gringotts?_' Harry thought, thinking it an odd name for a bank. However it was much stranger inside, besides for a poem on the floor giving a very cryptic death threat to any thieves, it seemed like a normal very well built bank complete with bank booths. The big change was that the staff were goblins, they were behind the booths and guarding the doors. Harry tried not to stare, even though the looked like no other creature he had seen before he could tell they were dangerous. Harry could just tell, whether it was from his training or instincts Harry would not want to mess with them, well not in his physical form at least.

Harry and an invisible Death walked up to an empty bank booth. "Hello sir, I have an inquiry about any money stored for me in this bank." Harry said trying to sound as grown up as possible.

"Name?" The goblin asked curtly, not even looking up from some documents he was shuffling though.

"Harry Potter." he said, causing the teller to pause and raise his head, giving him a piercing gaze.

"Yes.. Mr. Potter we have been expecting you, if you could sign here please." The goblin said, pushing a piece of parchment at him along with an old fashioned quill and inkwell.

Harry signed his name, and as soon as he took the quill away the paper gave off a faint blue light that vanished as fast as it appeared.

"Very good Mr. Potter. It will take me a minute to retrieve your key. When I return you may accompany Griphook to your vault.

* * *

After a few moments the goblin Griphook collected them and took them on a wild cart rid down to Harry's Vault. It was very impressive, filled with gold, silver, and bronze. Harry made sure to get plenty not knowing how much things cost in the Wizarding world, but it seemed that from the excess of shiny things in the vault, gold was not worth as much as in the Muggle World. Harry did learn some from Griphook about the magical currency, that the gold ones were Gallons, silver Sickles, and bronze ones were called Knuts.

The Soul Reaper and student left Gringotts and went off to collect Harry's school things. The headed down the street planning to stop at any stores that would have the proper things, they first stopped at a book store named Florish and Blotts.

There were books everywhere many with very interesting titles. Harry got the required books for school and a few others. He purchased Modern Magical History wanting to familiarize himself with recent historical events in the Magical world. He also purchased Curses and Counter-Curses the title was just too tempting to pass up. He also asked the store manager for any suggestions for new Hogwarts student, he suggested an extra book an Herbology and Potions. Saying that he was not allowed to do magic outside of school but he could read these books and get ahead of the other students. He finished with Hogwarts a History as his last extra book wanting to know about his school, it was always wise to have more information when going into anything unfamiliar. Harry loved to read, it was an excellent way to escape the Dursleys in while reading in his room. It was often the case that if he was outside his room and not working he would be yelled at for being lazy. Much of the time it was out of sight out of mind with the Dursleys. So when he was not spending time in the Soul Society, he was often hidden his room by himself reading. Harry planned to go over most of his books in the extra month he had before school.

Harry continued down the street and came to a store named Magical Menagerie. Harry opened the door and as soon as he stepped in a loud "CAW CAW CAW!" filled the shop." In the back corner of the shop looking right at the pair of Soul Reapers was a jet black raven. The bird was looking at them flapping its wings slowly making a rustling sound as its feathers brushed against the bars of the cage.

The owner of the shop rushed in from a back room. "SHH, Agrona quite." She hushed the bird. "Sorry she's never been like this before. What can I do for today?"

Harry stared at the black raven, but it seemed like the raven was looking in between them, her eyes shifting from Death and Harry. "I'm looking for an owl to send messages."

"Well right over here, I have a fine selection of owls for you." The store keeper said leading him over to a wall that was lined with the nocturnal raptors.

The raven was still in the corner giving a few odd caws but became slightly more vocal when Death walked towards it. Death soon returned after the store keeper had left him to look at the birds.

"Can that raven see you?" Harry whispered.

"I believe it can. Although I am not positive. " Death said, looking around.

Harry was extremely curious about the raven, "Excuse me ma'am," Harry called to the store keeper. "Could you tell me more about that raven."

She looked over to the flustered looking bird, then back at Harry. "Well her name is Agrona she has been here for several months, because when ever someone is interested in her; she doesn't like them. Ravens can be like that, they are often very suspicious of other people when they first meet. Don't get me wrong they are fantastic creatures, bright as can be, although they sometimes get a bad reputation because of their color and sometimes questionable eating habits; if you know what I mean."

Harry could not put his finger on it but he was somehow drawn to the bird. She looked slightly forbidding but it was quite beautiful in an odd sort of way. Much of her plumage had an iridescent sheen to it. Harry stepped up to the cage looking closely at Agrona. She tilted her head slightly and gave a low call looking right back at him.

"If you want we can see if she likes you." The shop keeper said, almost reading Harry's mind.

They opened the cage up and the raven hopped out onto his arm and started moving its way up to his shoulder.

"I'm surprised. This is the first time she has ever took a liking to anybody."

"Do you know if ravens can deliver letters?" Harry asked, knowing he would buy her even if she couldn't

"Of course they can." The shop keeper said delightedly. "Owls are not the only birds that can do that job. Any bird large and smart enough can. It's just that owls are used for the majority in England and Western Europe. It kind of depends on where you were in the world, different places preferred to use different birds. In North America they liked to use hawks and eagles, in Africa they would often use parrots, and I've heard sometime a flamingo. Although I've also heard that flamingos aren't too smart and often mess up deliveries. Raven's are used a lot more frequently in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia, and they do a great job."

"Harry smiled. "Alright I'll take her."

Harry bought Agrona and several treats for her, the shop keeper told him that she would most likely also eat owl treats despite their name. But when Harry went to buy her a cage started to caw angrily as soon as he reached for one. When Harry withdrew his hand she stopped. He repeated the process reaching for a cage and she again started to caw and hop up and down on his shoulder.

"Fine what one do you want?" Harry asked, flippantly not expecting any response. However Agrona hopped off his shoulder and flew to a dark iron perch on a nearby shelf. It was no more than a few inches high, it looked like a bowl with a odd shaped 'T' sticking out of it.

Harry chuckled. "You're a lot smarter than I first thought. Any thing else we need to get while we're here."

She gave a small caw and a clap of her beak that could only be understood as a negative.

The small boy and Death left the shop. Harry was really starting to like the raven, they were both almost positive that she could sense spirits, but they would need to try and test it later. She seemed extremely intelligent and Harry loved having his own very smart pet, when he was used to Grim and him being smarter than the average dog.

They rest of the day was spent going from shop to shop collecting Harry's school supplies, a few times people gave him an odd look because of the black raven on his shoulder; but that only lasted until the collected some parchment and wrote a response to the Hogwarts letter. Agrona took the letter and flew off giving a few fading caws.

When He was fitted for clothes he made sure to buy himself plenty of extra clothes, they even had a small selection of normal clothes although most of the colors clashed horribly. So Harry got himself a few good pairs of normal clothing that actually fit him. He bought his robes and even got a black cloak that looked just like the one Death wore except that it was just physical not a spiritual one.

The rest of the shopping was not eventful until they came to shopping for wands. The two Soul Reapers stepped into the shop, looking around at the thin dust covered boxes that covered the walls.

"Good afternoon," a soft voice greeted them. "Ah yes, I had expected to be seeing you soon. Harry Potter"

The man looked like he was about to continue, but then paused rubbed his silver eyes and squinted around the room. "Are you alone?" He asked.

"Not really, sir." Harry said, examining the man before him. He took a deep breath and stretched his senses out, and there he found it. The tinniest glimmer of spirit energy, nothing much. He might be able to feel the presence of spirits or see an outline but nothing else.

The man shook his head. "Anyway it seems like just yesterday your mother was in her buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches, swishy, and made of willow. An excellent wand for charm work. You have her eyes but the rest of you looks much more like your father. He had an eleven inch mahogany wand. Pliable, nice and powerful for transfiguration."

Harry was a little lost on the wand part but it was nice to hear about his parents. After having searched much of the Rukon district they had yet to find them. While this did disappoint Harry, he knew that he would someday see them.

Mr. Olivander moved closer and reached out with a long finger and moved Harry's bangs away from his scar. "And that's where," He paused. "I'm sorry to say that I sold the wand that did it. Yew, thirteen and a half inches. Very powerful indeed, and in the wrong hands too.

He shook his head once again, "Well now, Mr. Potter which one is your wand hand?"

After a brief explanation about wands and several seemingly unnecessary measurements, Olivander handed Harry a wand. When he waved the wand and nothing happened he was handed another one, he waved wand after wand until finally he was given a wand that blasted out a fountain of sparks.

"Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, magnificent wand, Mr. Potter." Olivander said, but then put his hand to his chin. "How curious, very curious.

When Harry inquired about what was so curious, he then learned that his wand had a brother wand. Both wands were made with a feather from the same phoenix. His wand was paired with a the wand that belonged to Voldemort. While this information was interesting it really did not scare him or anything like that. It was strange Harry thought to himself, how his priorities had changed when he had to deal with being the apprenticed to the last Soul Reaper. Dealing souls and dead people so often, it had altered his thoughts on a lot of things. People were often so scared of the unknown of death that they feared a lot of other things. Like a wizard that was so feared that people still do not say his name. but that did not really did not frighten him like it would most other people. However if you know what to expect when you die, your fears change, and Harry's fears were much different then the majority of people.

It was late and Harry and Death left Diagon Alley and headed back to the Dursleys house.

"Mr. Olivander was interesting." Harry stated. "Would he be one of the rare few with a little amount of spirit energy?"

"Yes. He felt my presence in the shop, but he did not have enough to actually see me." Death confirmed. "Here you go Harry, I will contact you again soon. It will be your birthday soon is there anything special you would like?

"I can't think of anything Sensei, thank you very much for today." Harry said. It was always nice, Death always did something special for Harry's birthday and Christmas, it helped a lot when you would watch your cousin open present after present and the best thing were ever given from your relatives was a Mars bar.

Harry ripped his mind from those depressing memories as left his sensei and walked quietly into Number 4 Privet Drive.

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(Author Notes) I'll try to get the next chapter out soon, but right now I'm going to bed_._


	5. First Goblins Now Ghosts

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

(Author Notes) Its taken a while to get this chapter out, but I got Harry to Hogwarts, now the fun stuff can begin.

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The next month with the Dursleys was very odd, Vernon seemed to thump around the house growling at Harry much more than normal. Although he did not confront him about Hogwarts but he seemed to have a perpetual frown on his face, and meals were much more silent than normal. Which could have actually been a good thing. Vernon no longer rambled on about drills or some new contractor for Grunnings.

Aunt Petunia was not much better, she would always give Harry a sour looked whenever they were in the same room. It almost seemed as if she was jealous of him. Both of the adults in the house were quiet and distant whenever he was around.

Harry tried to avoid all contact with the Dursleys keeping himself up in his room for a extended period of solitude. Agrona had returned from delivering the letter, it did not take long before she was back and setting on her iron perch on Harry's dresser.

It was nice to have Agrona there for company. While she would come and go as she pleased, Agrona would often set herself on Harry's shoulder as he was reading one of his school books. It almost seemed as if she was reading as well.

Dudley seemed to be the only person that did not know about Harry's magical gifts, but even with how dull he was he knew something was going on. The Janitor's warning and Uncle Vernon's reactions to the letter would have clued in anyone. So it was not long before Dudley started sticking his nose where it did not belong.

Harry had just left his room for a quick break to the loo when he heard a high pitched scream as well as an angry cawing coming from the direction of his room. He had to quickly finish his business, and as soon as he opened the door he saw Dudley rushing out of his room his feet thundering down the stairs with his arms protecting his head. He was quickly followed by and angry black bird flying around him.

"Agrona don't hurt him!" Harry ordered.

With an indignant caw Agrona stopped her assault and fluttered back into Harry's room.

"What where you doing in my room?" Harry called down to the cowering form of his cousin at the bottom of the stairs.

"Why d-do you have a bird in you're room?" Dudley asked wide eyed.

"Because its my room and I can keep what I want in it, including blood thirsty ravens." Harry replied. "Don't worry as long as you stay out you won't have your eyes pecked out."

Dudley tried to put on a brave face but only succeeded in looking constipated. "I'm not scared of your stupid bird."

As soon as he had finished his brave statement a long drawn out, "CAAAAAAAWW," echoed from Harry's room. Dudley made a frightened squeak and rushed into the kitchen.

Harry looked behind him to see his feathery sentinel fluffed up almost prideful.

"Good bird." He praised, as Agrona gave a cheerful call.

* * *

The month passed quickly. Death and Harry spent less time in the Soul Society because Harry was busy with physical things, like reading his Hogwarts text books. Harry found the information gathered in them to be fascinating. In his magical history books he found that important or shady activities in the wizarding world would often spark some war or other unforeseen consequence in the muggle world.

There was often times that he had a hard time understanding some of the books. In the potions book he had never heard of a Doxy or any of its eggs. However some things that he thought might have been useless in the normal world were used for potions ingredients, such as porcupine quills, frog brain, and rat tails. If Harry was honest about it was a little disturbing, and he wondered if humans could be used for potions.

The herbology textbook was mostly boring instructing things that he already knew from caring for Aunt Petunia's plants. However there were some oddities. The text book told of a certain class of plants that instead of being _watered_ in the normal sense of the word they were to be given alcohol, the higher proof the better. It seemed that most of herbology was taking care of rare plants for potions ingredients, but the book made mention of dangerous plants, or plants that would defend a home much like a guard dog.

Charms and Transfiguration seemed similar in the fact that it seemed to require brainpower to work. The magical theory book did a poor job of explaining where magic came from or how magical power was measured or increased, but it seems that focus, determination, and imagination were the most important things in controlling magic. Giving little mental exercises someone could do before one's first try with magic.

Harry was a little disappointed that the month had passed so quickly. However on September first he found himself in the back seat of Vernon's car as he drove him to Kings Cross Station.

Vernon looked into the rear view mirror at his nephew in the back seat, giving him a nasty look.

"Remember our deal boy?" Vernon questioned.

"Yes, Uncle Vernon." Harry answered. "The only reason I'm getting to go to my freak school is because you won't have to deal with me the entire time I'm there."

"And what does that entail?" He inquired again.

"That means no coming back on holidays, if I get in trouble no contacting you about it, if I get expelled deal with it myself, no coming home till summer, and finally no letters from freakish birds." Agrona fluffed herself up about the bird comment.

"That's right boy." Vernon said with a smile.

* * *

It was not long before the arrived at the train station. Harry barely had enough time to collect all his things before Vernon's tires screeched as he pealed away.

"How uncivilized, I hope he gets pulled over." A deep voice said from behind Harry.

"Hello Sensei." Harry said without turning around. "I did not know you would be here."

"I would never miss seeing you off to your school."

"Thanks a lot." Harry said with a smile.

Agrona gave a caw from the top of her perch on Harry's shoulder. The two Soul Reapers looked around, Harry seemed to be attracting a lot of attention because of the raven on his shoulder as well as the fact that it seemed that he was talking to himself.

"Come, let's find your platform, we can't have you missing the train." Death said.

Death and Harry spent some time trying to find platform nine and three-quarters. Harry wheeled around his trunk looking for anything out of place.

"It would make sense for it to be between platform nine and ten, but since it's a wizard thing it has to be hidden."

"Yes but it seems hidden very well, even for wizarding kind." Death said.

Death and Harry were running out of options and were thinking of resorting to some Soul Reaper powers when a familiar group or red heads passed by.

"Packed with Muggles, of course." Said the matriarch of the group.

Death and Harry looked a each other and followed after the group. Harry was sure that it was the same group of people he had passed in Diagon Alley. After Harry had seen several of the older boys disappear into a seemingly solid wall he decided to ask about it, after all he did not want to charge into a wall if there was some trick to get through it.

"Excuse me ma'am." Harry interjected.

The redheaded woman looked down at Harry her eyes pausing on Agrona on his shoulder. "Hello dear, didn't I see you at Diagon Alley? First time at Hogwarts? It's Ron's first year as well." She said without letting Harry answer.

"Yes ma'am. I'm curious about platform nine and three-quarters. Do you just walk through that wall?"

"Yes, just go through that wall its fake, but you must not be afraid when you walk through that's important."

Harry thanked the plump woman and saw Death was already walking towards the divider. Harry followed after him and with a small amount of trepidation found himself on the other side of looking at an old steam engine.

Harry and Death moved there way through the crowd of people and to the train. It seemed that Agrona attracted a lot of attention towards him. Finally Death and Harry made it to a door. Harry pulled his trunk off his trolley and maneuvered it to the door.

"Need some help?" One of the redheaded twins asked him from his side.

"No I got it." Harry responded, as he scrunched up his face in effort lifting his heavy trunk up the train steps and setting it down with a heavy thump at the top.

The red head raised his eyebrows. "Well I guess it wasn't that heavy."

Harry gave him a sly smile and pointed at his trunk. "You wanna have a go?"

"Sure." The older boy said and grasped the trunk and heaved upwards only lifting it a few inches before putting it back down. "Oi! I guess that's heavier than it seems." He said his voice stressed. Agrona flapped her wings and cawed in a mocking tone.

The commotion attracted the attention of the other twin. "Hey George is the little firsty picking on you?"

"No brother of mine, this is my new friend, it's his raven that is poking fun at me."

"Well hello new friend of my brother." He said holding his hand out." My name is Fred, and he's George. We are well know around the school as the Infamous Weasley Twins."

Harry shook Fred's hand then Gorge's when he offered it.

"Fred, I thought it was Incredible Weasley Twins?"

"Well it was some sort of spectacular adjective that started with I-N. Anyway what's your name."

"Harry." He responded.

"Nice to meet you Harry." They both said at the same time.

"Right." Harry said as he stretched running his hands up over his face and running his hands up through his hair reaching upwards. "It was nice to meet the Insane Weasley Twins. I guess I'll see you at school, goodbye or now."

Harry noticed that both twins seemed to have a odd look on their faces when he grabbed his trunk and lugged it into an empty compartment, followed by an unseen Death. Both Soul reapers sat down on opposite sides of the compartment.

"It will be nice to be able to forget about the Dursleys when you are in school." Death passively said.

"Yes, but I am sure that there will be other things to worry about, I feel that I will have a lot more people paying attention to me at this school as I would at the public school."

"I have something that might help. I would have wanted to give this to you on your birthday but it took a lot more time for me to create than I expected. Happy belated birthday." Death said, as he handed Harry a new Soul Candy container.

Harry looked down at the happy looking duck turning it over in his hands, the same red warning on the back. "Is it different then the gikongan I have now?"

"Yes this one I designed to be able to be able to be able to access you magical abilities, but it is mostly the same as the last one I created. However you could use this for class and it will of course replace you and take as much notes as possible if you must use it when in class. It should be able to mimic your abilities and behavior well enough to fool anyone even under the increased attention." Death reached into the folds of his black cloak and pulled out an equally black folded mass of cloth. "I also got you this, as I told you in a high magical environment your soul form with become visible to the naked eye. So wear this and even if you are seen it should conceal your face so that no one will be able to connect you to being a Soul Reaper."

Harry unfolded the cloth it turned out to be an exact copy of Death's own cloak except smaller. "Thank you Sensei! Lets try them both out." Harry smiled as he popped a Soul Candy into his mouth and was ejected from his body.

"Hey there!" The new Gigan said enthusiastically. Harry was very glad there was nobody else in the compartment. He took the cloak and pulled it over his head, it fit perfectly and made him look like a miniature version of his sensei, except for the different looking Zanpakutō on their backs. Harry looked himself over then stepped back into his physical body.

"Thank you again Sensei."

"You're very welcome Harry, I am going back to the Soul Society. Take care of yourself, and don't get into too much trouble. I will keep in contact with you but I do not plan to enter your school often."

"Alright goodbye Sensei." Harry said as Death left Agrona and Harry alone in the compartment.

Harry pulled a out his potions book and started reading about the reactions between certain ingredients, as the train slowly pulled out of the station. Some people were still in the corridors looking for a seat. Several other student looked in the window, a few opened the door but quickly shut it as Agrona gave the intruder a threatening caw. Harry's peace was interrupted by a redheaded boy that he recognized as Ron. The other boy's mother telling him it was his first year as well. Ron was not scared away by Agrona as he opened the door. Harry looked up from his book as Ron bravely stepped into the compartment even with Agrona protesting loudly.

"Shhh, Agrona be nice." Harry commanded quieting the raven as she clapped her beak a few times and settled back on his shoulder."

"He he, nice bird." Ron laughed nervously. "Is it alright if I join you all the other compartments are pretty full?"

"Sure go ahead." Harry said pointing to the seat across from him. "Don't worry Agrona will be nice. Won't you Agrona?" Agrona simply fluffed herself up as if to ignore the question.

Harry returned to reading and Ron stayed quiet for several minutes before abruptly blurted out.

"Are you really _The Harry Potter_?"

Harry looked up from his book and set it aside. Just from the sound in his voice Harry could tell that he had probably underestimated how famous he was in the Wizarding World.

"Well, yes my name is Harry Potter, what's yours?" Harry asked just to be polite.

"Ron Weasley." He said "Wow I thought Fred and George were just pulling my leg, They said they saw your scar." his voice filled with wonder. Then Ron ducked his head slightly and with is voice slightly above a whisper asked. "Can I see it?"

"See what?" Harry asked.

"Your scar."

Harry mentally sighed, Yes he really underestimated how famous he was, but he still brushed his bangs away to revile his famous scar.

"Wicked." Ron said. Then he started talking about Voldemort, but always calling him You-Know-Who. Harry found that extremely annoying but did not say anything about it because it seemed that it was an annoying habit that the entire wizarding community had. Harry and Ron made Small Talking about things like the different houses at school, an interesting sounding game called quidditch. A snack trolley came by and after he bough several sweets Harry learned about the interesting moving pictures wizards had. Ron pulled out his pet rat which caused Agrona to start cawing angrily, it took quite a bit to calm the angry Raven and even after she stopped she did not take her eyes off of Scabbers.

"Ravens don't eat rats do they?" Ron asked.

"I don't think so they are too big at least I think so." Harry replied.

"Well I would not blame her if she did this pathetic rat is probably only good for food for a much cooler pet. It just sit there doing nothing but eat and sleep. Scabbers could up and die and you would not noticed until he started to stink." Harry cracked a smile Ron seemed to be alright compared to most of the kids Harry's age he was often around. "My brothers gave me a spell to make him more interesting you wanna see?"

Just as he pulled out his wand the compartment door slid open, and a bushy haired girl stuck her head in. "Have you two seen a toad about here? She asked, but before anyone could answer her eyes lit up. "Oh are you doing magic? Could I see?"

Ron gave the girl a slightly annoyed look before rolling up his sleeves and saying something that sounded much more like a poem than a spell.

"Are you sure that's real a spell? The bushy haired girl said.

"Do your brothers like to pick on you a bit?" Harry asked, Ron nodded. "They were probably messing with you then."

Ron sighed. "That sounds like something they would do. I swear someday I am going to get them back, for all the stuff they have done"

"I have already tried several spells already and they have all worked." The girl said, sounding like she was bragging. "I really have never heard of magic before my Hogwarts letter. I'm Hermione Granger by the way."

"Ron Weasley."

"I'm Harry." He said decided to only give his first name.

"Alright, I am going to go look with Neville I will see you later." Hermione left almost as fast as she came in.

Ron and Harry talked for a while more before the compartment opened again this time three boys stood in the door way.

"I heard that Harry Potter was on the train. So it's you is it? The blond haired boy seemed extremely pompous. He was flanked by two other boys with thick jawbones and angular foreheads making them look more like cavemen than you children. Harry had to suppress laughed when a mental image popped into his head of the two larger boys grunting loudly while hopping around a fire. Harry recover his composure and simply nodded to answer the questions.

"This is Crabbe and Goyle, and my name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Ron huffed indignantly and Malfoy looked down his nose at him. "You don't need introductions red hair, freckles and clothing that is nearly falling apart, my father told me about your family you're a Weasley for sure." Draco turned back toward Harry. "You will soon find that association with certain people will reflect on your own social standing, hanging around the wrong type of people will just cause trouble. I can help make the correct ones." He finished holding out his hand for Harry to take.

Harry quickly looked around the room He could tell that Ron was stressed and so was Agrona she was slowly puffing up making herself look bigger. Malfoy reminded Harry of Dudley that he would cry to his parents if he did not get what he wanted. He could tell that this boy felt that he deserved to be respected just because of this name, Just the way he said, "_Malfoy_" he made it seem like the name belonged in a special spot to be worshiped. The only reason why Draco was here was because he felt that special people should associate with each other, and he automatically put each other in the same grouping.

Harry thought it would not be wise to encourage him. "Nice to meet you Mr. Malfoy." He said in a monotone turning back to his book ignoring his hand.

"Do you not know who I am?" he asked incredulously.

"No, but you obviously think your something special." Harry replied rolling his eyes.

Draco sneered. "You should learn to be more polite, if you don't you could end up dead just like your parents."

Harry paused, that was a low blow. It seemed Malfoy could be quite nasty at the drop of a hat. He could beat the other boy into next week but that was sure to cause more problems, he had a better idea. Harry smiled predatorily. "Death doesn't scare me Draco Malfoy I know far too much about Death to be afraid him. While I might need to be more polite you should not threaten people you have just meet. Now please leave you are irritating my raven."

Agrona hunched over spread her wings slightly and gave two low caws.

Draco had a puzzled almost scared look on his face until her recovered and sneered again looking between Harry and the threatening black bird.

"See you around School Potter." Malfoy spat. With that he stormed out taking his to thugs with him.

Hermione chose at that time to return. "What was that about, that one boy looked very angry his face was so red."

Ron started to crack up laughing, Harry also smirked at the idea of Malfoy wallowing in an inept rage.

"Oh Malfoy was angry that Harry Potter did not want to join the Malfoy fan club."

"Potter?" Hermione inquired. "Oh you did not tell me your last name. I've read about you're in Modern Magical History, Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

"Yeah I've read Modern Magical History, it was a pretty good book but the part about me was filled with more guesses than facts, and I have not been hidden in a secret location being trained by Aurors since I was three years old."

Hermione looked shocked. "Oh, alright umm, well you two should be getting ready we will be arriving soon." She finished looking like she wanted to ask more.

It was not long before the train stopped every one got out it was a bit chaotic There was a giant of a man waving a lantern about and calling. "First years over here." in a booming voice,

"Agrona go stretch your wings I am sure you can find me tonight or tomorrow." She clapped her beak a few times and took off disappearing into the dark. Harry tailed by Ron Followed a extremely large man to boats that were to take them across the lake. Hermione and Neville joined them in the boat. The castle was impressive but not nearly as impressive as the castle in the Soul society. However it was still the largest structure he had seen in World of the Living. The boats sailed under a under hang into a sort of under ground harbor, they docked and the first years took a tunnel heading towards the castle.

"Oi! Is this yeh toad?"

"Trevor!" Neville called happily snatching up his pet amphibian.

The were lead to a large set of door knocking on them making a booming sound on the door. Harry wondered if he put much more force into it if he could knock the doors down.

"Firs' years are all here Professor McGonagall."

"Thank you Hagrid I will talk them from here."

Professor McGonagall lead them to a giant entrance hall and started explaining things about the school. She left them saying that she would return to take them to the sorting ceremony. Everything she had said Harry already knew from reading Hogwarts a History. What was strange was that the book never mentioned anything about the actually ceremony. They told how the Houses were named after the founders but how students were separated into houses in modern times was not explained. One thing that interested the Soul Reaper in Harry was that it mentioned that Hogwarts was one of the most haunted places in the world. Harry was disappointed as at least twenty of the souls of the dead, passed though a wall. A girl at the back of the group screamed. It was a little odd for Harry that every one could see the souls not just him. Harry quickly looked around at the ghost checking if any had soul chains. There was no chains and none of them had any real spiritual pressure, just the same tiny sparkle that all souls had, nowhere near enough to have any powers.

Harry decided to try something, Harry released a some spiritual pressure, he wanted to see if these souls could do after all they had stayed in the world of the living for years protect from the flow of spiritual energies because of the high concentration of magic in this place.

A ghost called the Fat Friar was talking just as Harry released his spiritual pressure. "I hope to see you in Hufflepuff. My old house you- HUHH!" The Friar gasped. If fact every spirit gasped some putting there hands over there mouths or grasping at where their hearts would have been. The children and ghost all went silent, Harry smirked slightly.

The group of ghost were looking around and at each other. The Fat Friar was the first to speak.

"Did you _feel_ that?" Speaking the word feel like it was a foreign idea. The other ghost nodded not knowing what to do. Harry enjoyed there reactions that was probably the first time they had felt anything since they died.

The stunned souls were interrupted as Professor McGonagall came back and ordered them into a line and lead them into the Great Hall it was very impressive candles floated everywhere but no wax rained down on anyone and the charmed ceiling make like there was no roof at all.

McGonagall silently place a small stool in front of everyone and placed a very ragged looking hat on it. A rip opened looking very much like a mouth, and the hat started singing. It was a very nice little ditty explaining that it was the Sorting Hat that would put each student into the correct houses. The one thing that Harry did not like about the song was that it sang about looking into his head. Harry looked around the other older students were quite and the silvery form of the ghosts were seen floating above them, some looking very worried or contemplative.

The Sorting had already begun as the hat confidently cried HUFFLEPUFF! Eventually The bushy headed girl Granger, Hermione went to GRYFFINDOR, Each child was alphabetically sorted into one of the four houses until Potter, Harry.

Hissing whispers could be heard around the entire room as Harry made his way up the stool. He really did not like all the attention but he was not going to shy away from it, because doing so could often call more attention to someone.

He sat down and pulled the hat down on his head covering his eyes. There was a tingling in his head that sent a shiver down his spine and he involuntary twitched.

The next thing Harry know was that he was in an endless plain interrupted by one giant tree. He was in the world of his Zanpakuto. He looked around and saw a man dressed in grey standing under the tree looking around in a bewildered fashion. "Koukuudenkou!" Harry called as he ran at the intruder and unsheathed the blade on his back.

Harry stopped a few feet from the man who looked shocked, before Harry could talk Koukuudenkou beat him to it.

"Who are you and how did you get here?" The thunder bird demanded, the normal melodious voice taking a sharp tone.

The man looked up see the bird and looked back at Harry. He seemed to sort himself out of his gob smacked state. "Well Mr. Potter this is quite remarkable. I guess I should answer your questions before you attack me. I am the Sorting Hat, and as you might remember from my song I can looking to your head. Although I have never seen anything like your mind and that is saying something."

"You don't look like the Sorting Hat." Harry pointed.

"Oh yes that is another thing quite amazing. I guess this is what I imagine myself as if I had a body." He said, looking down on his body and arms. "I would have expected I would imagine myself to look like Godric Gryffindor, but I look quite unremarkable certainly no rippling muscles that Godric used to beguile maidens with. Anyway I am quite impressed, I never seen anyone with an actual landscape inside his own mind, and I have seen a lot of things."

"So what do we do I don't want anyone to know about this and don't you still have to sort me?"

"Yes, how am I going to sort you? Usually when I get one someone's head I rummage through that persons memories and from that decided what house is the correct house for that person. Your mind however is quite unique I don't even know where your memories are. But you don't need to worry about me telling anyone about what I see. I can't, I am bound so I can't share any secrets I find to anyone else."

"How can we trust you that you won't?" Koukuudenkou demanded.

"I'm afraid I have no way of proving it to the both of you. For now you will just have to trust me."

"It's alright Koukuudenkou. He's only a hat, once I get back to the real world I could always destroy if he leaks any secrets."

Harry would have expected the hat to be afraid from that statement, but he laughed. "Quite right in the end I am only a hat, even if I pride myself on being the brightest hat there is. If I did betray your trust and told your secrets I would deserve no less, then a swift destruction."

"Alright." Harry said wearily. "Can magic do this often and look into people's heads I mean?"

The Sorting hat smiled. "I feel I am going to enjoy sorting you. Yes Mr. Potter a certain type of magic will allow others to look into your mind and get information often without the other person being any wiser about it happening."

"That is not going to happen here I will prevent any other intruders from trespassing in this world. Even you would not be here if I were prepared for something like this to happen." Koukuudenkou said, sounding very displeased.

"Yes and I do apologize for that, but normally it is never a problem. I don't mind to be rude but if there is any possibility of seeing your memories I need to sort you, we have been talking for a while and there are others I need to sort."

Harry sighed. "Koukuudenkou if its possible please let him I am going back to make sure he's not going to say anything he's not supposed to."

Harry was once again conscious about his physical body. The whispers that had started when he went up to the stool had become a noisy murmur, he was not sure how long he been sitting there."

"Ahh there we go." The Sorting Hat's voice echoed in his mind. "Quite a impressive bird you have, it shattered the giant tree into boxes of memory, something I can work with. Quite amazing, I am sure there will be many people that would kill for the information in your head. Knowledge of the great beyond, but the question is where to put you. You have vast amounts of both courage and cunning, very bright and hardworking too."

The hat was interrupted when McGonagall tapped Harry on the shoulder. "Mr. Potter." She queried.

"He is still deciding." Harry replied.

"Yes and a very hard decision." The hat mused. "Knowledge by itself is not very important for you, so not Ravenclaw. Loyal but only to those who you know deserve your loyalty, hardworking but know when to relax so perhaps not Hufflepuff. Ahh now I see, It would be very hard to chose where to put you if I had not found out you are called a Soul Reaper. Between your cunning and courage I must say that being a Soul Reaper and being one of only two protectors of life and death is the most courageous thing I have ever encountered. I look very forward to learning about your time in GRYFFINDOR!" The Sorting Hat proclaimed.

"The Table at the end exploded in a cheers, he even heard the Weasley twins cheering "WE GOT POTTER!" As Harry headed toward the table.

Soon after Ron also joined the Gryffindor table looking very relived. The feast started soon after Albus Dumbledore welcomed them to Hogwarts. One of the ghosts named Nearly Headless Nick expressed regret at not being able to eat. Harry felt a little sorry for him if he could preform a conso on him he would be able to eat in the Soul Society and not have a form where he would appear to be nearly decapitated. Death had encouraged him not to guide any souls across at Hogwarts because they were not harming anything where they were and it might draw attention if he did so.

The food was delicious, the other students were talking about the school lessons or family. A few people asked why the Sorting hat too so long, apparently he was up there for several minutes. The new Gryffindor just shrugged avoiding the question. Harry looked up to the head table, a man with shinny greasy black looked down his hooked nose at him. He felt the same sort of tingling in his head that he had felt with the Sorting Hat. Harry quickly looked away, making a mental note to talk to Koukuudenkou about it and to keep any eye on that Professor.

* * *

The feasted ended and after explaining some rules and a very disorganized singing of the school song Harry followed Ron's older brother Percy up to the Gryffindor dorms. On the way up Harry felt something that surprised him. He did not expect to find an unfamiliar source of spiritual pressure here at Hogwarts. The spiritual pressure came from somewhere nearby. Percy rounded the corner as several walking sticks went flying past which barely missed him.

A few of the other Gryffindors jumped. "Don't worry its just the school poltergeist." Percy said. "Peeves come out."

"Oooooh." Said the soul of a very small idiotic looking man. "Ickle Firsties what fun."

"Go away Peeves or I'll get the Barron on you." Percy threatened.

Blowing a loud raspberry at them the soul darted through a wall. Harry frowned, it was very strange as far as the rules of spiritual beings worked. Soul Reapers could not walk through walls. However other souls could even this one named Peeves. The Soul Reaper in training would have to find out more about this poltergeist. He seemed to have just enough spirit energy to be able to manipulate physical things. It was not likely he could do anything else, he did not enough power. Harry guessed that Peeves might have been one of those few that could have been able to see souls when he was still alive. It was just another thing for Harry to do during his time at Hogwarts

"Watch out for Peeves." Percy advised. "The only one that can control him is the Bloody Barron the Slytherin ghost."

Percy led them into the Gryffindor common room. He explained a few rules and pointed out the stairs to the dorms, where they would sleep. Harry however had other plans He did not want to simply sleep, when there was so much he could be doing.

(Author Notes) Here you go nice long chapter. Sorry for the wait in between postings. RL caught up to me for a bit. I plan to put another chapter out soon so yay me. If anyone noticed or cares I put chapter titles up, Woot! Alright sighing off for now.


	6. Invisible Infiltration

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

{Minor editing done Oct, 13 2010}

(Author Notes) Shorter chapter this time but you guys got a long one last chapter so no complaining. Also Several people reviewed saying that Soul Reapers are able to pass through walls. There is only one case of that happening. When Rukia enters Ichigo's room through a wall. She uses some sort of black portal someone mentioned that it would probably some sort of senkaimon, or maybe its a type of Kido, I don't know but I might mess with that later in the story. Its just I remember a lot more getting thrown through walls (with much rubble ensuing) than walking through them like a ghost. So I would guess its not so easy for Soul Reapers to move through solid objects.

Also one person told me that Peeves was never alive that poltergeist's are just a collection of stray energy and emotions from the masses of students in Hogwarts. While this may be true I get to have fun twisting canon a bit in order to explain what Peeves would be. I need it to be applicable and believable for both Bleach and Harry Potter universes. So Peeves was once alive he is a Soul, the reason he is able to manipulate things is because of high enough spiritual energy. I will explain more when I get further in the story. I think I am going to have lots of fun with Peeves, just keep reading.

XXXXX

Once every one was up in the dorms after a slight amount of small talk the other boys drifted quickly off to sleep one by one. As soon as Harry was sure that the other were asleep he pulled his new Soul Candy out and popped one into his mouth. Harry Potter the Soul Reaper was ejected by his body, dark cloak and cowl concealing his face, Zanpakuto strapped to his back.

Harry turned to Gigan. "I am going to explore the castle some. Get my body some rest."

"Ok, boss." Gigan whispered, and saluted laying down on the bed.

Harry crept out of the dorms down the stairs and out the portrait hole with no one being the wiser.

The castle was amazing, confusing but amazing none the less. Harry went up and down so many stairs he felt that he was going to get used to climbing stairs during his time here. He also got lost several times, but it seemed that by simply wandering about you would eventually end up at the Entrance Hall and Great Hall. Although it would sometimes take quite a lot of wandering. Using that as a reference point, he concluded that the castle seemed to have at least seven floors, not counting the dungeons which seemed to go down two or maybe three more levels. That also did not include the towers which added a lot more space.

It took Harry hours to get a basic idea of the castle and could move from the few landmarks to help guide him. The giant Library, the Entrance Hall, Gryffindor Tower, the Infirmary, a courtyard here, a large statue there. He did find a few locked doors, like the a door on the third floor that they were all were warned about. He would have to return there something, because what could threaten a Soul Reaper here?

Harry did encounter a few people in the corridors a teacher or two and some older students walking around, none of them saw him. He did pass by a few ghosts but hid whenever one was around. A particularly observant spirit did see him but Harry was able to use flash step and vanished before it could get a good look at him. There would be no way a normal soul should be able to track his movements so to their eyes he would simply disappear. Although he took care to suppress his spiritual pressure to ensure that none of the other souls in the castle could pick up on his presence, even if he doubted they would. The only reason they had felt it before was because of his close proximity and the high amount that had been released.

Harry quickly lost track of time. The sky was actually starting to lighten when he found a secret passage behind a tapestry giving a short cut between two distant corridors. Harry smiled, because he had already discovered several surprises of the castle, a moving staircase or fake steps. He had already fallen victim to a few of those his leg sinking in and tripping him up. He made sure to remember where those were, and walk up and down the steps counting them. He did that until he could skip the step with his eyes closed. There were other things like doors that would open with nothing but a wall on the other side. He also encountered a door that had a note on it saying '_Attention first years, this door will only open if you pet it in a counter clockwise circle first_.' There were quite a few doors with notes on them that he found around Hogwarts, doors that would require you to ask politely for them to open, or one door that required you to knock four times first.

After the tapestry Harry decided to take nothing at face value, looking in the corners, pushing on statues and looking behind paintings, some of the paintings giving a frightened squeak when they were moved by an invisible force. He discovered a revolving wall by pushing in a stone block in a empty room on the fifth floor that gave access via ladder to two other empty rooms on the fourth and third floor.

Harry was disappointed when the sun appeared over the horizon, he was quite enjoying exploring the secrets of the castle. Heading back to the Gryffindor Tower, He was lucky when the picture of the Fat Lady opened and a older student followed by Hermione Granger exited the portrait hole. Harry quickly moved inside not disturbing the two as he heard Hermione ask for directions to the Library. As he walked unseen back to his body Harry wondered how long it would be before the magic in this place made him visible to everyone, because he wanted to do lots of things before that happened.

* * *

The first day was quite interesting Harry's other dorm mates were just starting to stir when he returned to his body which was thankfully fully rested thanks to Gigan. Jumping out of bed he started to get ready for the day. Ron was still sound asleep snoring softly with a wet spot on his pillow by his mouth. Harry was distracted by a taping coming from a nearby window. Agrona was outside on the ledge waiting to be let in. he quietly opened the window and the raven hopped on his arm and climbed up to his shoulder. Harry pulled her perch out of his luggage, and set on the shelf above his bedside table.

"Stay here Agrona." He commanded. "I am going down to the Great hall, I might not be able to get back here for a while I don't know what the schedule is going to be like. If you need out I am sure you can work the latch on the window, right?"

Agrona gave a small call and clapped her beak, which could only mean an affirmative. Harry left Gryffindor Tower alone headed quite literally following his nose to the smell of the breakfast in the Great Hall. He did encounter a door that make him pause for a bit, The note on the door said, 'Attention first years, you must knock 4 times on this door before it will open.' If Harry remembered correctly this was the door that you had to turn the knob left and push then turn it right and pull for the door to open. Doing what he remember to do the door opened and he continued to the great hall. Even though the odd layout of the castle could slow you down between classes and was sure to be annoying at some point Harry was sure that it would cause any invading army to go completely nuts before they got anywhere within the castle. Even though this was a school it was a very defensible location.

The Great Hall was filled with the smell of bacon and toast in the air. There were almost no other students seated yet, a few older students but none from his age group. Harry sat down near the Weasley twins who were the only Gryffindors that he knew that were at the table.

"Why look at this Fred." George said looking over at Harry as he seated himself.

"Quite right brother of mine, how did an ickle firsty get down here this early?"

"A good question indeed, most fresh blood wanders around the castle for a good half an hour before making it down."

"Some miss breakfast completely." Fred said.

George's eyes shifted around as he ducked his head and spoke in a hushed voice. "Or others get lost and are never seen again. How did you make it down here alive."

Harry smiled at the banter between the two. "Just lucky I guess."

"Just lucky he says." Fred quipped." We might need to keep our eyes on this one George. Stronger then the average firsty, with a mean black bird, and to top it all of extremely lucky."

Students were slowly coming in as Harry and the twins were talking about the school and the teachers. Hermione made it in sitting across the table a few seats down. No one sat next to Harry but it seemed every one in the room kept shooting him glances. The room was almost full when Ron eventually sat down beside Harry.

"There you are Harry." Ron said. "I though you would have gotten lost like me, spent ages trying to get here."

Fred reached over and grabbed Ron's shoulder. "We're so glad you made it here alive little brother." George sniffed mockingly.

"Yeah, what mum would have done to us if we had let you disappear I don't even want to imagine." Fred whipped away a fake tear.

"What?" Ron complained, while loading his plate with food. "It's not my fault nothing makes sense in this castle. I was on some stairs and they started to move."

"You just have to go with it Ronniekins,-"

"Like our man Harry here, just lucky he says."

Ron did not reply he had his mouth full of food.

A girl that had been sorted into Ravenclaw the night passed by. "Finally we made it. No thanks to you Terry." She said, annoyance filling her voice.

"Its not my fault." Terry Boot said defensively. "The stupid note on the door said to rub it in a circle not to ask politely for it to open."

"Yeah well the way you were going unless that prefect came by you would have worn a hole in it, before it ever opened." She snapped.

Fred and George looked at each other and smiled and discretely gave the other twin a high five. Just then the Great Hall was filled with the fluttering of hundreds of wings as a giant flock of owls descended from the roof like a scene from the classic horror movie The Birds. Dropping envelopes and small packages down to the students. Soon after that Professor McGonagall moved around the table handing out schedules. A list of classes were on it along with the time and a general idea of where the classes where was on the schedule. Our out over the corner of his eye Harry saw Hermione scan down her paper and hop off her seat and headed to the doors, obviously very excited about getting to classes.

One of Harry's dorm mates Seamus Finnigan called to Harry and Ron. "You two want to come with me to look for the Charms class room. I figure its best to get lost together."

Harry nodded finishing up his drink and Ron see that Harry was going shoved as much food as his mouth would hold and followed after them. Harry flanked by Ron and Seamus headed to the third floor, because of the hours exploring last night he knew the general layout of the castle. Harry had to keep them on the right path as once Ron wanted to go one direction that would take them towards the Library. Ron was talking about how his five other brothers had told him so much about the castle that he had thought he would be able to find his way around better. While Seamus was asking Ron questions Harry recognized a familiar flight of stairs, and started counting in his head.

'_1-2-3-4._'

"Ron have your brothers told you any secrets they have found in the Castle?" Seamus asked.

'_5-6-7-8_'

"No the twins keep talking about all cool things they know about, but they never tell me in any detail."

'_9-10-11-12_'

"Oh well." Seamus sighed. "I've hear this place is full of secr- wahhh!"

'_13_.' Harry counted and hopped over the trick step, just and Seamus and Ron's legs sank into the stairs. Harry turned around and smiled.

'_Being a Soul Reaper can definitely have its perks.' _Harry thought, leaning down to give the other boys a hand.

XXXXX

(Author Notes) I hope you enjoyed this little excursion of Hogwarts. I was just reading the first book to give me ideas and finding those little things gave me lots of little ideas. The Room of Requirement is an awesome idea but I think Rowling could have built on those ideas she started and had more fun with just how magical Hogwarts was.

(More Author Notes) Alright here is where I need your guys help. I have huge ideas for this story but I am not sure with just how to take it. I just want to know what you guys want. You see I have an that I could end this story at the end of the first Harry Potter book. I mean perhaps a Soul Reaper could kill off old Voldemort even though he has horocruxes. Or I might be able to take this story through all the books, I have the ideas in my head to do so.

Also I just wanna know what you guys think of Dumbledore. Is he a great wizard that perhaps has grown too old and keeps making BIG mistakes. (let's just face it from all the books the Headmaster seems to be making lots of them.) "Oh I am sorry Sirus, as a person of extreme political power I should have at least gotten you a trial. Just like you insane cousin." Also "Sorry Hogwarts students, I know that Professor Snape is a biased jerk who should never be allowed to teach students, but he's a really good potions master and I need him around to become my spy if Tom Riddle comes back." Or even. "Sorry Harry, for literally leaving you on your muggle relatives door step, and never checking on you again. I couldn't have seen that they would have turned out to be the worst sort of guardians ever, but it was for your own protection.

Don't get me wrong I think Snape is a great character even if he could not get over a childhood grudge and decided to take his anger out on the dead man's son. Snape did lots of great things and just as Harry said was probably one of the bravest men in the series, and did lots of good. Even if Snape does or did have the potential to be a really cool character, he was seen as a complete jerk throughout every book up until he died a very anticlimactic death being back stabbed... um back snaked? by the guy he was being a double agent on. No popping out surprising Moldyshorts with the fact that he had just been foiled by one of his inner circle. Nothing like that just "I'm dying Harry, and by the way I had the hots for your mother."

Anyway back to Dumbledore. Do you think it would make a better story that instead of the Supreme Mugwump slowly going senile that he is actually manipulating the child of prophecy for the greater good. While I am all for the greater good its a question of if the ends justify the means? This is a man who before he died some how predicted that Harry would sacrifice his life for the greater good, he even set up his will for the specific reason of guiding Harry along the right path to finally make Voldemort mortal again, I mean he was even pulling strings after he was dead. That seems like talented manipulation if you ask me, if you want to look at it that way. Then there is Aberforth Dumbledore, encouraging Harry to forget the headmaster because it was not something easy an under qualified wizard could do, that he should save himself. Now that Dumbledore was dead.

I guess it could be either, or perhaps a mix of both. Tell me what you think and it might help me write a story people want to hear.


	7. Classes and the Curious

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat

(Author Notes) I know last chapter was pretty short, but at least it was not like some stories where you don't even have to scroll down in the chapter. Enjoy this one then. All reviews and little tips or corrections are appreciated

XXXXXX

The first classes were interesting, the first day of charms was basically a brief introduction to magic. The minuet Professor Flitwick was teaching the students such things like how to properly hold a wand. Also giving tips on how correct pronunciation of the incantation was always important and mindset during spell casting helped to accomplish magic. but also having resolved to accomplish the magic was always important. He concluded the class giving a small display of magic making books and other objects fly, jump and dance around the room.

Harry had been excited about Defense Against the Dark Arts seemed it like it could be a very interesting class. However that was until he meet the Teacher, Professor Quirrell seemed to be afraid of his own shadow. Somehow he doubted that Quirrell would be able to properly teach them how to defend themselves from a violent rabbit much less some of the fearsome creatures that he had read about in the Defense textbook. Also something about the Defense teacher did not seem right to Harry. For one thing his spiritual signature was off, it was somehow twisted in some way that made him feel uneasy whenever the teacher was around. He wanted to understand why he was like that, maybe some sort of magic had affected him somehow. It kept nagging at him whenever the Professor was near, he would have to check on it later. Another reason he was not thrilled about the defense teacher was that no one should stutter as much as he did unless they had a mental issue of some sort, and Harry certainly did not want anyone with a psychological disorder teaching him.

Herbology was more interesting that Harry expected it would be. While the first day was just explaining to the students general plant care that anyone who has ever had a house plant should know. Which was not very exciting for Harry since he had to become a gardener for the Dursleys when he was younger. However once they got into the green houses was when it became interesting. While some of the plants looked very ordinary, others were anything but. There was a bush that changed color every time something touched it, or a small shrub that looked like it was constantly blowing in a violent wind, even though they were in a enclosed greenhouse and therefore no wind. The first years only taken to the safe greenhouse nothing in there could hurt, poison, or wrap around and throttle the life out of you. Although there was one plant that rattled menacingly every time anyone got close. It was called Rattler's Respite and the only reason that plant could be danger is often real Rattle Snakes often like to hang near them, and wizards had been bitten because they could not hear the dangerous snake's warning over the harmless plant.

History of Magic was so dull that it had students nodding off to sleep on the first day. Professor Binns had to be the most boring soul Harry had ever encountered. His voice was so monotonous it was hard to distinguish each word he spoke. His lecture came out in one long drone that you had to pay close attention just to be able to understand him, which was a test of concentration by itself. If the lessons continued to be so mind-numbing the Soul Reaper would either have to perform a soul burial on Binns or use the new Gikongan so that Gigan could sit through the mental torture and take notes. Just so Harry could read it later and preserve his sanity.

Transfiguration was very fun, and it was the first class that let the students try actual magic. Professor McGonagall was a very strict no nonsense teacher, and he could respect that. After a very impressive display of magic changing her desk into a large pig and back again, each student was given a match to try and change into a needle. It was much harder than expected, Harry looked around at the other students. Hermione was biting her lower lip, while Ron had his tongue sticking out of the side of mouth while waving his wand around violently.

After Harry tried going though the motions a few times with no success, he took a deep breath and centered himself. He remembered the tips on how to focus magic he had read about before. Focusing hard on his objective he again waved his wand over the match, causing no changes what so ever, but there was a little quiver that came from the tiny little fire starter. He thought that maybe he was not imagining what he wanted to change well enough, so he drew a mental picture in his head about the match morphing into the desired item. Harry concentrated hard squinting to blear the outlines of the match. Waving his wand again the match did change slightly getting slightly thinner and the red match head dulled in color.

Spurred on by his success Harry closed his eyes really imagining the differenced between a match and needle. The roughness of the wood of a match to the sharp cold smooth metal of a needle. He again waved his wand over the target. The match changed as it shrank then the color of the wood faded and suddenly shined. Once it was done a perfect needle lay before him, complete with a small hole at the top. Harry pick up the tiny object examining it in the light.

"What?" Ron said incredulously. "How did you do it? Mine hasn't done anything."

Professor McGonagall came over and inspected Harry's needle. "Very good Mr. Potter. five points to Gryffindor. It's not often that a person is able to perform a complete transfiguration in the first class, go ahead and try if you can change it back into a match it should be easier."

By the end of class Harry was able to change it back into a match earning Gryffindor another point. The only other person to make any changes was that Hermione was able to turn her match silver and make it thinner it still however was red at the top. At the end of class the bushy haired girl gave him a annoyed look and was the first one out of the room.

Harry's days were spent going around classes sometimes being followed by several of his class mates. People had learned that Harry did not get lost in between classes like every one else. Although that also drew more attention to him. People were already staring and whispering as he passed. A few of the braver ones introduced themselves always wanting to shake his hand. Those that were not as brave tired to subtly brushed or bumped passed in the halls. Like they got some thrill from touching him.

He spent his nights exploring the castle more, there was just so much to find. Harry found short cuts hidden rooms most of which were empty. Late one night Harry followed one older student to a door on the fifth floor that he was previously unable to enter. The older student who had a P badge on his chest spoke a password that allowed him to enter a special bathroom with a tub so large you could swim in it.

He was seen a few more times by the ghosts around the castle, there was such a high population of spirits in the Hogwarts it was sometimes hard to avoid them. However a quick flash step and he disappeared the second he was seen. He had yet to again encounter Peeves on his nocturnal forays, although Harry was planning to deal with that troublesome soul when he did encounter him in his Soul Reaper from. The little poltergeist enjoyed causing havoc around the school. He would dive bomb students cackling madly, throwing anything from chalk to stink bombs. Peeves had not bothered Harry yet, and wanted to talk to the soul before anything did happen. Nobody ever avoided Peeves forever, except maybe the Insidious Weasley Twins, and rumor had it they were on good terms because they supplied Peeves with Dung bombs and other tools of terror.

Friday eventually rolled around and double Potions class was on the schedule with Professor Snape, something Ron loudly complained about. Harry himself was slightly on edge because of the last time with the Potions Master. Although there had been no more attempted entry to his mind since the first night at Hogwarts, he was still warry. his Zanpakuto: Koukuudenkou was not particularly happy about people trying to enter his mind. Just with everything that he had seen so far there was definitely more to Hogwarts and magic than met the eye. It would be best to know what he was dealing with, he would have to keep on his guard just to be safe.

Potions started with Professor Snape taking role call, when he reached Harry's name he paused.

"Ah, yes. Harry Potter our new celebrity." Snape said, a condescending tone evident in his voice.

Harry discreatly rolled his eyes, he did not like the way this class was heading already.

After a brief introduction about the class, bragging about the incredible things potions could accomplish. Professor Snape once again turned on Harry.

"Potter!" He snapped. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Out of the corner of his eye Harry saw Hermione's hand shoot up into the air. Harry luckily remember reading about this from reactions between certain potions ingredients.

"If done correctly that should, create a sleeping potion so powerful it has been called Draught of the Living Dead. If done incorrectly, it creates a poison that will just take away the living part." Harry answered.

"Hmm." Snape mused. "So it seems you were bright enough to open a book. Then tell me where can I find a Bezoar?"

Hermione's had again shot up as she strained to answer the question. It was good that he remembered that Draught of the Living Death could create a poison because a Bezoar could save you from that.

"It's a stone found in the belly of a goat that can save you from most poisons, sir." He replied throwing in the respectful title.

"Congratulations, You are famous for your ability to stay alive. A Bezoar will help you to continue doing so. However can you tell me the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Snape's tone sounded annoyed more than anything.

Hermione stood up in her hand dangerously waving about. Harry tried to remember the alphabetical list of One Thousand Magical Herb and Fungi, there was no way he could remember all of them but he did remember wolfsbane because of its unique name. However he could not remember monkshood in the list. Wait! Harry did remember monkshood was listed as another name for wolfsbane.

"Nothing sir, they are the same plant." Harry responded

Snape smiled. "Very good Potter, but not good enough. You forgot to mention that it is also called Aconite. So a point from Gryffindor for missing that."

Poorly contolled laughter came from the corrner at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle's table.

Anger flashed though Harry sending a warming sensation throughout his body before he called his emotions back in check. He would not be goaded into an outburst, which it seemed Snape expected from him, he would not fall that easily. As part of his Soul Reaper training Harry had learned to be able to control his emotions, its never a good thing to rush into a fight blinded by anger.

Professor Snape, looked down at Harry and there was a small tingling sensation in his head. Snape's eyebrows shot up towards his greasy hairline, but then quickly reset themselves; a frown appearing on his face.

"Sit down!" He rounded on Hermione. She looked shocked for a second then she threw an heated look at Harry.

Just from the Professors actions he could tell that Koukuudenkou had blocked Snape's access to his mind, and that seemed to anger him. It must not be often that he was restricted from looking into someones thoughts, and that idea disturbed him.

Snape gave them instructions for a boil curing potion, and they divided up into pairs and started working on a the potion. Snape floated around the room criticizing almost everyone, and not in anyway helpful he would mostly say that they were wrong and insult their intelligence.

The Soul Reaper got extremely irritated at the Professors teaching methods. He had yet to say or do one thing that would help the students more than reading the book. The recipe for the potion was written down on the board with no sort of extra help. The _guidance_ if you wanted to call it offered no help. It seemed the the teachers job could be preformed by a parrot that could speak insulting words and go around the room breathing down people's necks.

The class continued until a green smoke and a loud hissing filled the room. Neville had melted Seamus's cauldron and was covered in potion the same potion that was seeping across the floor which started to melt peoples shoes.

"Idiot boy! Take him up to the hospital wing!" Snape yelled as large red boils started to sprout on Neville. "Potter!" Said the Potions teacher as he turned towards him. "If you're so good at potions why did you not tell that fool not to add the porcupine quill while the potion was still over the fire? That's another point from Gryffindor."

Harry took a deep calming breath. He could only keep his mouth shut, and hope this class got better.

* * *

Saturday rolled around giving students a respite from classes, also Harry received a break, there was some other gossip going around Hogwarts that was not about him. Apparently someone broke into the impregnable bank of Gringotts and stole nothing. While that was interesting, but as long as nobody stole his money there was really nothing to worry about.

Harry was sitting with Ron and the Weasley Twins at breakfast, the subject was Professor Snape."I can't believe him, you answered all those questions correctly and he still took points away." Ron said.

"Don't worry about it Harry." Fred assured. "Snape is always like that, try your best to stay away from his nasty side."

"I don't think that is possible Fred," George said. "Professor Snape only has a nasty side."

"Hmm." Fred mused. "Once again my handsome brother brings up an excellent point. Just try to make sure your not his target that's the best you can do."

"You didn't see it." Ron complained, "Harry didn't do anything and Snape could not have targeted him more unless he had a giant bulls eye painted on him."

"Do you guys have any ideas why he dislikes me so much?" Harry asked.

"Could be because your famous and not in his house." George said.

"Yeah, Snape has blatant favoritism for Slytherin." Fred continued. "It seems he doesn't like anyone who is not in his house, and he especially doesn't like Gryffindor.

"Wish McGonagall would favor us." Ron said bitterly.

"Don't worry about it too much, you will get used to it." George said, then his voice lowered. "Even if he is a great big git."

The bushy head of Hermione turned toward them. "You shouldn't say that about our teachers, and Professor Snape is a brilliant Potions Master. I can understand how he acts if he has to put up with students like you lot in class. It's also rude and selfish for wanting Professor McGonagall to favor us."

Hermione seemed like she was going to rant some more when Harry had an idea. _'Why doesn't McGonagall favor us_?' He thought.

The more he thought about it the more unanswered questions Harry had. Students had rules to follow, restriction put on them. The only mention about rules was when McGonagall talked to them before being sorted. Saying that rule breaking would lose your house points. Well what exactly were the rules? Harry doubted that answering a question wrong in class was breaking a rule, and if breaking rules was the only way to lose points he should not have lost points. Or could Teachers just make up rules on the spot?

Also shouldn't the teachers themselves have rules. Extreme favoritism seemed like something that would be controlled by rules for teachers. It just did not seem right, in muggle schooling if a Teacher or Professor broke certain rules they would not be teaching for long. It almost seemed that now that they were students Hogwarts now owned them, or at least the teaching staff, and Harry definitely did not like that idea. Students were not given any sort of handbook or list of rules and regulations. The most they got was that little talk from McGonagall and Professor Dumbldore telling them about the forbidden forest, the third floor corridors on the right side, and no magic in the corridors between classes. In the end Harry knew what he had to do, he needed more information. Although that may be easier said then done.

Harry's thought's as well as Hermione's rant were interrupted by the many fluttering of wings as the owls came to deliver the post. He found it amusing with the number of birds in the great hall that none of them had any midair collisions at least not yet.

Then Harry saw it amidst the chaos in the air, winging its way towards him on paper thin wings was a hell butterfly. Several of the other students noticed the insect and pointed it out. The black insect frantically fluttered in his direction. Once the butterfly reached Harry it seemed that every eye in the room was watching it. He sighed internally has he reached out his hand his pointer finger extended, as the little creature landed on the offered digit. Again the voice of his sensei filled his mind.

"_Hello Harry, how has your first week at the wizard school been going? I am interesting in hearing about the things you are learning. Everything is going well here no problems with any chains of fate. So its mostly normal business as far as what it was like before you showed up, and don't take that as if you are not missed. Poor Grim has been moping around the Seireitei. I guess he misses your ability to give the best ear scratching he has ever had. You don't need to worry we will still be here like we always have been. So stay in school it will be a good experience for you to get out on your own strength, maybe make some friends in the World of the Living. Although I am interested in the souls there that are bound to the school, if there is anything of interest feel free to inform me." _

Death's message ended clearing Harry's mind enough to hear his own thoughts. The Great Hall was strangely quite a few whispered conversations but not much else. '_So much for the gossip about me slowing down._' He thought getting up and taking the hell butterfly with him so he could use it to send a message back to his sensei. He fought the urge to run out of the Hall as hundreds of eyes watched his movements. As Harry disappeared from view a loud buzz filled the room.

"Definitely keep our eyes on that one." Said the Weasley Twins at the same time, then looking at each other smiling.

"An excellent idea Gred."

"Quite right Forge, this is the second time in less than a week he has rendered the Great Hall silent-"

"Not and easy task at that."

"Yes brother of mine he hasn't even been trying and so far he has stirred up more commotion than us this year."

"A sad day it is when the Indisputable Weasley Twins are bested by a firsty, we can't have that." George said.

"So we need a plan."

"Yes I agree." Their banter finished they leaned in close to each other talking in whispers.

A few seats down a bushy haired girl looked around with a puzzled look, then glance towards the exit. Hermione got up and left the great hall she wanted to check something out.

* * *

Harry sent hell butterfly back, telling about the interesting things of Hogwarts and the large soul population, also the unique soul Peeves. He sighed, he was starting to miss the Soul Society, after years of going there almost every night he viewed it more of his home then the Dursleys. Also Hogwarts really was an interesting and fun place even if it had more secrets and unknowns than he was comfortable with, but that also offered him a challenge and he did like that. If you find yourself in a place with too many unknowns you need to get more information, and where better to get information than a vast store of knowledge known as a Library.

While Harry had explored all easily accessible parts of Hogwarts including the Library he had yet to spend much time in there. Most of his time in his body was either reading from his textbooks, doing homework or talking to other students in the common room. It was strange Harry had really had much social interaction with anyone else besides Death. Playing exploding snap with Ron and other students was actually really nice,

So Harry made his way to the Hogwarts Library. He hoped that the organization of the Library would be easy to understand. Sometimes the Wizarding World made little logical sense.

Hermione Granger looked up from the book she was reading as Harry Potter walked into the Library. If he had looked over in her direction he would have seen her narrowed eyes right above the pages. There was just something about him, she could not put her finger on it. Something about him screamed giant secret. There was just so many things that made her think that. First was the Sorting Hat spending more time placing him in Gryffindor than almost sorting everyone else combined. He was very good at magic. (Something she was of course not jealous about,) Rumor was that he had been raised by muggle relatives, and therefore should not have had any bigger of a head start than her. Even though many of the others have been raised around and were still doing average, but not Harry.

Then there was his uncanny sense of direction It seemed like everyone got lost inside Hogwarts, even many of the older years. Harry Potter on the other hand easily knew his way around Hogwarts. Once she had finished lunch and went directly to transfiguration, but when she arrived Harry was already there despite the fact that she had left the Great Hall before him and that he did not pass her.

Also that black butterfly at breakfast. It was clear at least to her that it was delivering a message somehow. Almost as soon as he left with the insect she had gone to the Library to look up information on ways to send messages magically. She found several different ways including enchanting paper to fly to the recipient, but mostly it was done by owl. She found nothing about any type of insect delivering a message. Speaking of owls it was also odd that Harry had a raven instead of an owl, despite it not being a Hogwarts recommended animal.

Anyway Hermione then tried to find out information on that specific variety of butterflies. One thing she could not get enough of was the outstanding collection of books at Hogwarts. Seemingly everything from books on magic to metallurgy, agriculture, and even animals both magical and mundane. She found a fantastic book on butterflies giving pictures and descriptions like wingspan or coloration. Hermione started to get frustrated when she looked through the entire book and found nothing about the variety of butterfly that she had seen land on Harry. There were not very many kinds of black butterflies, and she could not find the black butterfly with the red pattern on the lower wings. She found black and yellow, white, blue. However she could not find the same black and red she had seen. So unless it was a undiscovered species or was made by magic, she had no ideas about a special butterfly that would deliver messages. That just made Hermione thirst more for the answers behind Harry Potter.

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(Author Notes) Looks like our little Soul Reaper is gathering some unwanted attention. How long might it be before some secrets are leaked.


	8. Three Meetings

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat

(Author Notes) I have been reading some really good Harry Potter fanfic which has inspired me recently. I am trying my best to make this story unique and not another near cannon copy. Any constructive criticism, and helpful reviews are very welcome.

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Saturday night and the young Soul Reaper was once again exploring the castle. He had just come from the fourth floor after finding a large passageway behind a mirror. Sadly after following it for a long way it dead ended. The passage had collapsed at some point in the past. It was very disappointing, because it seemed like it could have been an secret escape or entrance to the castle. It seemed long enough and was headed in the general direction of the nearby town of Hogsmead. Harry returned to the fourth floor, and that's when he felt it again. The same weak spiritual pressure was coming from just around a bend in the corridor, as well as a bit of maniacal cackling. He found the resident poltergeist was setting a classic prank trap, a bucket full of water set above a doorway. Harry looked at the soul floating in air. It was strange all the other souls were silver in appearance, he guessed it was because of some way the strong magic of the castle had lit them up. However Peeves was not like the other souls, perhaps it was something to do with the poltergeist's spirit energy. Because he looked like any other soul outside of Hogwarts that Harry had seen. Even if the colors of his clothing were outlandishly bright, and the fact that he was vertically challenged.

'_Maybe he is one of Flitwick's ancestors._' He thought passively.

Peeves had just finished his little trap when Harry decide how to subdue the soul. Harry released his spiritual pressure, he did not want to use any kido on him or suddenly rush at him. It was quite possible that that every ghost in the castle would probably feel his spiritual pressure, but hopefully only Peeves would be the only one really affected by it.

Peeves grunted as the affects of the high spirit pressure affected him, he fell out of the air sinking to the floor and then fell onto his hands and knees. "What's going on I can barely move?"

"Yes." The young soul reaper said slowly, disappointing himself. He did not sound at all as impressive as his sensei.

Peeves struggled to lift his head to look up, his eyes growing large as the small black cloaked figure approached him.

"Come with me." Harry ordered as he reached down grabbing hold of his shirt collar and picking up the soul with one arm. Peeves gasped and tried to struggle slightly. The Soul Reaper took him back to the passage behind the mirror for some privacy.

There they would be less possibility of being interrupted, Harry stopped releasing such a high amount of spiritual pressure, but did not release his grip on the soul.

"Now if you agree to not try to run away I will let go of you, other wise I will have to force you to stay." The Soul Reaper in training said.

"W-what do you want?" Peeves Stuttered.

"I just want to talk. Will you stay to hear what I have to say?"

"Er- alright." The Poltergeist said warily. "Who are you?"

"Don't worry I am not here to harm you." He said releasing his grasp. "I just need to know more about you, as you should have noticed you are not like other souls."

"Yeah so?" Peeves said, sounding a bit offended. As he straitened himself, after being freed.

"I want to know why you are different?"

"I don't know. Why what do you want with me, and you still have not told me who you are." Peeves said nastily, seemingly shaking off the shock from the sudden and unexpected encounter.

Harry sighed. He could tell that Peeves was not going to make this easy for him, so he decided to take control of the situation.

"Watch your tongue!" He commanded maliciously. "You obviously do not understand what type of position you are in. I am a Soul Reaper, and you will answer my questions before I decide it is not worth my time and decide to harvest _your_ soul!"

The rebellious face Peeves wore fell as his entire body when limp as he sank to the floor again. The poltergeist swallowed visibly. He might not know exactly what a Soul Reaper was but just possibilities that it could be might be dangerous.

"I'm s-sorry sir! Please don't hurt me, I did not know." He stuttered.

"That's better, now you will stay here and listen to what I have to say. You will answer all of my questions to the best or your abilities, and if you try to run that will be the last action you will ever make." Harry threatened, Peeves did not need to know that he did not intend to harm him. "Do you understand?"

"Yes sir." Peeves agreed as he coward before the Soul Reaper.

"Now what is your real name." Harry asked harshly, sounding like some sort of interrogator.

"M-my name is Peerson Peverick, at least that was my name when I was still alive. Peeves was m-my nickname. Its just stuck with me now that I am dead."

"Very good, now can you tell me why you are different from the outer spirits around the castle?"

Peeves shook his head. "No, I have always be able to moves things around unlike any of the other ghosts, and luckily I am not dull and silver like the others."

Harry looked over the painfully bright colors covering the soul. "Yes I guess so." Harry said, thinking others would not be caught dead in such attire. Peeves quite obviously disagreed seeming proud of his garments. "You sound like you don't like the other ghosts in the castle."

Peeves scoffed. "It's the other way around they don't like me, jealous I say. All those other idiots can do is float around remembering the _good times_ when they were still alive. At least I can do something, like chasing around a bunch of firsties throughout the castle as they run screaming from you as you chuck water balloons or something at them. It makes me feel alive again." Peeves said proudly, relaxing a bit.

Harry was glad that his cowl covered his smile. He had to admit it did sound like fun, even if it was deplorable behavior. However there was not much else Peeves could do to keep himself entertained.

"Were you at all special when you were alive. Perhaps you were able to see more ghosts others could not?"

Peeves frowned looking up at Harry. "How did you know that? That was hundreds of years ago."

"I am still asking the questions Peeves."

"Oh yes, right sorry sir." The poltergeist said timidly. "It only happened a few times. When my liege lord killed himself he came to me. I was able to seen him when no one else was. Eventually he became all silvery and everyone was able to seen him. When he was still alive I was his servant and often his jester because of my short stature. Even in death I still have to obey him." Peeves grumbled.

Harry thought that perhaps it was because he was a jester that might explain the outrageous colors. "Wait, was your liege lord the Bloody Barron?"

Peeves grunted. "Yes, I swore an oath of fealty to him, and I will honor that even though I hate it now."

Harry had a random thought pop into his head. "How did you swear it?"

"What?" Peeves asked sounding confused.

"Well most of the time you swear loyalty for only a certain amount of time."

"Oh it was so long ago, it was something like till my dying breath or until my lord releases me."

"Alright then, you are no longer the Bloody Baron's vassal."

"Don't be stupid of course I still am, even though the Baron is now dead he has not released me yet."

Harry almost laughed out loud at the extreme lunacy of the situation. Trying to keep his voice in check Harry told Peeves what he had been overlooking for hundreds of years. "Umm Peeves, hate to break it to you but you're dead."

"Of course I know that I'm dead what else woul-." He stopped as the concept finally dawned on him. "ARRRHHHG!! How could I be so STUPID. I'm DEAD, I have taken my dying breath!"

Harry could not control himself from the antics of the small man before him he started laughing out loud. He recovered enough to ask another question. "So that is the only reason the Bloody Baron is the only one you will listen to? Because of your oath of fealty."

Peeves had his arms crossed in front of him as he glared down at his floor. "Yes." He growled bitterly. "There is one thing I hold myself to and that is my word. To think that I have been subservient all these years because of my own stupidity."

"Does it really change much of anything now that you realize that you are no longer bound?"

"Not really, I rarely see the Barron around the castle; but when I do I always hate it when I have to be respectful calling him sir when he no longer deserves it." Then Peeves did something unexpected, he straitened up to his full height and then bowed to Harry. "Thank you Soul Reaper, it has been so very long since I have had a conversation with anyone. Now with your help I realize I'm free. I owe you a great debt, if there is anything I can do for you just ask. If it is within my current power I swear I will do it."

Harry was surprised by both the serious attitude of the poltergeist and him swearing to do anything in his power that he was asked. Something told Harry that Peeves did not offer his word often, he must really hate the Bloody Baron if he was so grateful to Harry for seemingly freeing him.

"You are very interesting." Harry said," I must make you swear that you will never reveal anything that has happened tonight, nothing of what you have seen or learned."

Peeves nodded crisply. "I swear it, but please may I ask why you are here? I have never meet any other spirit that was at all like me."

The young Soul Reaper considered his options as he looked down at Peeves. "I go to school here." He said deciding on the truth. "I am only telling you this because I trust that you will keep your word, if you break it your fate will be sealed."

"Don't you mean you used to go to school here?" Peeves asked in a confused voice.

He laugh slightly. "No I an not really dead you see." Harry said reaching up and pulling back his cowl.

"Harry Potter?" Said the poltergeist in awe.

"Curiously, there might be some times I need some help around here, would you be interested.?"

Harry and Peeves had a very long conversation about the castle and the other ghosts. Harry guessed that Peeves felt that he stilled owed him something. Peeves had agreed to keeping his ear open for things around the castle that Harry might be interested in, as long as he did not have to call him sir on any other respective titles. Peeves said, "I've had to be under someone else's thumb all my life and death. I'm my own man now." Harry could understand that, he only asked that he not be targeted for any of his chaos.

"Of course I won't, I can finally go down into the dungeons. The Sytherins have been protected by the Baron all this time, and I can't wait to mess with some of those stuck up purebloods."

Peeves was in a good mood as they parted ways. Peeves did invite him to join and help in creating havoc with him. Although Harry did declined the offer it was nice to have an ally even if he was certifiably insane. The two of them had been talking for a long time, when they finished it was time for Harry to head back to the Gryffindor tower and return to his body.

* * *

Sunday dawned and Harry spent almost the entire day in the library looking for a school charter or some sort of list of rules. Harry already knew some things from Hogwarts a History , but what that book lacked was any real regulations for the school. The book told of the fairly new creation of the Board of Governors, whose only real power was they could fire the Headmaster or a Professor with a ninety percent vote. Something they had only done twice since their creation. It also had to approve any new changes in school regulation, but failed to mention any of those regulations. The majority of what he found was wizarding laws passed by Ministry of Magic regarding general wizarding education and sometimes it mentioned how Hogwarts made slight changes to respond. The best he found was a list of disciplinary measure that could be taken by Hogwarts. First was taking house points, then detention, after that physical discipline, suspension, and finally expulsion. Although it was mentioned that physical punishment was almost never enforced in recent history.

He was eventually forced to give up for the day, he thought that maybe he could come back during the night. He needed a change of pace, while there may have been a lot more in the castle to discover he needed a brake from exploring. He had been making a lot less discoveries recently, already he had found so much like, each of the house dormitories, and lots of secret passages and shortcuts. One thing that interested him was the during his wanderings he encountered several little creatures cleaning or doing some other sort of tasks. He later found that they were house elves, and even found the kitchen where they stayed mostly. Which was where they prepared the delicious food that appeared on the tables each day. However he was kind of tired of exploring for the time being, so he needed something else he could do at night as a Soul Reaper.

* * *

In other parts of the castle the Teachers were having a meeting to discus the first week back. Talking about subjects or trouble making students, also about how the first years were adjusting.

"Speaking of first years." Albus Dumbledore said. "What are your thoughts on Harry Potter?"

Flitwick was the first to speak. "A most interesting student. He was not what I was expecting when you told us he was coming this year. I've never seen anyone take that long being sorted. Did you find out anything about it from the hat?"

"No I'm afraid not." Dumbledore said. "I spoke to the Sorting Hat about what caused him to take so long, and he only responded that Mr. Potter had a very interesting mind, much as I expected him to tell me."

"Did all of you see what happened with the butterfly in the Great Hall?" Professor Sprout asked.

"Yes t-that was c-c-curious." Quirrel stuttered.

"Oh please." Severus Snape droned. "That was probably some stunt he came up with to draw attention to himself."

Across from him McGonagall scoffed. "He does not seem like the kind of boy that would do that. Whenever I have had him in class he has been quite and respectful and he is very good at transfiguration just like his father."

"Exactly," Severus snapped. "Just like his father, just as arrogant as he was."

"Severus please." Dumbledore pleaded. "Harry is not his father, and it would be best for both of you to remember that."

Snape simply sneered and nodded.

"There is an air of mystery around him that even my eye cannot penetrate." Professor Trelawney said speaking in a eerie drawl. Several of the other teachers rolled their eyes at her antics.

Albus took the ramblings of the sporadic seer in stride, with a nod and asked. "Minerva, since you are head of his house is there anything else you have learned?"

"Not that much." She replied. "I have asked several of my prefects about him, they all say mostly the same things. That he is not very sociable, but he is friendly enough when spoken to. He seems to enjoy playing small games with other students in the common room, but does not have a specific group of people he gravitates too. Although Ron Weasley is often around him, but I think that is more Mr. Weasley following him, than anything else. He does not seem to want to draw attention and rarely talks about himself, although students are often in awe of his reputation. Many people are interested or some even frightened about his raven that is often seen on his shoulder in the dorm or common rooms. I have not seen it, but it's an interesting choice for a familiar."

"Yes," Albus agreed. "If there is nothing else, just keep an eye on him I want Mr. Potter to feel welcome here."

The meeting continued as they talked about other things, it eventually ended and the Professors left to do other things. Eventually only Dumbledore and Snape were left in the meeting room.

"Yes Severus, was there something else you wanted to speak to me about?" The Headmaster questioned.

"I have some more information on the Potter brat, but I felt it would not have been prudent to mentioned it in front of the others."

Dumbledore set his elbows on the table and folded his hands. "You know you should not be calling him that Severus, but what is your news?"

"When I first saw the boy I used a little passive legilimency on him, I did not get anything from him, and passed it off as nothing. However during my first class with Potter I again tried to see into his thoughts, however I encountered occlumency shields so powerful I could not even detected his emotions."

Dumbledore looked troubled. "Are you certain about this?" he asked. Snape just gave the headmaster a look that suggested it was a stupid question because he would not be telling him unless he was certain.

"Very well, thank you very much. I will look into the matter. Is there anything else?"

Snape shook his head, and Dumbledore waved his hand excusing the Potions Master. As soon as he left the room a hand reached up to stroke his extremely long beard.

Albus Dumbledore's mind went into overdrive thinking of any possibility that he could think of that would explain why Harry Potter was an occlumens. Could he have some sort of natural ability? That could be possible but was also extremely unlikely. Maybe he could have been taught? No, Albus monitored the wards around Harry's house and the entire time he had been there in the past ten years no magical person had gotten near the dwelling.

There was also the possibility of some effect of the reflected killing curse, or maybe even Voldemort possessing the boy. While there had never been a case of surviving the killing curse he doubted that would grant the mind a special protection. He also could not see Voldemort possessing the boy for ten years now and doing nothing about it. Also the Sorting Hat would have seen that and certainly would not have sorted him into Gryffindor. So how did the boy have a an occlumency shield strong enough to thwart the former Death Eater and Potions Master, Severus Snape?

There were far too many unanswered questions am mysteries surrounding the boy, much more then he liked. Harry Potter was obviously a special boy, perhaps more special than he had predicted. The Boy-Who-Lived was sure to play a very important part in the future, but what role he would play was still not completely known.

Albus had hoped that by keeping the boy with his muggle relatives that he could kill two birds with one stone. If he had stayed within the proverbial wizarding spotlight he was likely to become as arrogant and inflated with his own legacy. Also if he was kept ignorant of magic he would be starting as all muggle borns, a fresh canvas with no prior guiding or other ideas put in his head.

When Harry was being sorted he had been a nervous wreck, although he did not show it. He was taking far too long for comfort, Albus had thought that the son of Lilly and James would have been easy to sort. If he been sorted into Slytherin he would have had his head filled with pure blood propaganda and that could have been the worst thing that could have happened. If that had happened then he would have to look at The-Boy-How-Lived as a potential danger to society rather than a balm. Luckily he had been sorted into Gryffindor and Albus was even preparing to slowly guide Harry to his destined role.

However, Harry Potter was not completely the blank canvas he had expected. It was strange the boy walked with a silent sort of confidence in his step, and a calculating look in his eye. What could have made him like this he did not know, and he needed to understand the boy before he could truly guide him.

Albus Dumbledore sighed, he did not like mysteries.

* * *

Down in the dungeons of Hogwarts unknown to the Soul Reaper or the Hogwarts staff, another group met together.

"I am sure you realize why I have called you three here." The Fat Friar said. "I do not know what is happening but something is going on that has never happened in any of the many years that we have been dead."

The four house ghosts were meeting in order to discuss the strange happening at Hogwarts. The Gray Lady, Nearly Headless Nick, The Bloody Baron, and The Fat Friar.

"Yes," said Nick, his dead wobbling hazardously on his neck. "In the entire time I have been dead I have never felt anything. At least not until recently, last night in fact."

"Something strange is going on." The Bloody Baron moaned eerily, sounding like his lungs were not working properly. "The question is what is causing this."

The Grey Lady gave the Barron an evil look then shook her head, as if clearing away her thoughts. "I have been talking with other ghosts around the castle and they all tell me that they felt the same thing last night. Like there was a weight on top of them or something was squeezing their entire body."

"Yes I felt that last night, and the at beginning of the year, right before sorting." Reported the Fat Friar.

"What should we do about it? Should we tell the living, or should we wait until we find out something more?" Sir Nick asked the others. They were all confused, they had never even heard of anything like this happening before. Ghosts did not feel, that was something that happened to creatures that still had nerves. Being without a body tended to restrict that.

"I'm not sure." Said The Grey Lady. "I mean this has never happened before, while its surprising and amazing to feel something it also seems so odd that this is happening."

"Yes." Wheezed The Bloody Baron. "But I don't think this is a bad thing, Many things might be causing this, I say we wait and see if it will happen again."

"You can't expect us to do nothing can you?" Nearly Headless Nick scoffed. "I would be alright to wait a while before we tell the living, but we should try to find out what might be causing this phenomenon."

"I agree," replied the Fat Friar. "We should spread the word out to the rest of the Hogwarts ghosts to keep their eyes open for anything strange and if they find anything or see anything odd they should tell one of the four of us."

"Are you sure that would be a good idea? I bet that some of the living could help us out with some of this and it might be a threat to the castle." Said the Ravenclaw ghost.

"While your concern is admirable I for one am excited about this strange happening. Something different than the norm that bores us all. So far whatever this is has only affected the spirits of the castle. It might be nothing that concerns them or maybe it could be something that only us ghosts can deal with." Nick said excitedly.

The Bloody Baron rolled his ghostly eyes and moaned out. "This isn't some adventure we must be cautious for all our sakes, we have no idea what we could be dealing with.

Which was very true for who could ever guess that a Soul Reaper, a guardian of life and death was at that very school. Was there anyone in the World of the Living either human or spirit that remembers the Soul Reapers or has any knowledge of the Soul Society?

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(Author Notes) We have even more people watching Harry or any strange happening at Hogwarts how long can Harry keep himself secret?

I am not sure I am very happy about the conversation between Peeves and Harry. I needed some way to explain Peeves from a Bleach view point. I had to make Peeves act less insane for a bit, and that just felt odd. However I think that will be the last time that I ever have to write a serious poltergeist. But now that I have given Peeves more spotlight I can have some real fun with him causing mayhem.

Please review, reviews make happy authors, happy authors update faster.


	9. Draco's Deliberations

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

(Author Notes) I was a little unsure if I would write half of this chapter because I did not know if I was going to have Quidditch in this fanfic. Well a friend of mine really wanted me to put it in and after thinking about it and getting several ideas I decided that I could have a lot of fun with putting a Soul Reaper Harry into Quidditch. Please enjoy.

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Draco Malfoy was irritated and the object of his annoyance was Harry Potter. He had been watching him ever since meeting him on the train. Everything Potter did annoyed him, even from the very first time they met the pathetic half blood started disrespecting him. Talking to him in a nonchalant manor as if he was no more important than a passing fairy. Even the way Potter walked was irritating, with his balanced measured steps. Draco had only seen heads of pureblood houses walk like that, and Potter was no pureblood. Just seeing Harry's causal manor irked him. It gave him the impression that Potter did not have a care in the world.

Also it was disgusting how others basically worshiped him. Saying the same relaxed attitude made him look so cool and confident, but Draco knew better. Harry Potter was nothing special, all the hype about The-Boy-Who-Lived was stupid gossip. How could anyone who was raised by worthless muggles be anything special?

However he defeating the Dark Lord, but must have been some sort of fluke. No body knew what really happened that night. The Dark Lord could have even hiccuped when saying the incantation for all anyone knows. Whatever happened Draco was sure that there was nothing special about Potter, he just need to prove it.

Although Malfoy was smart, and observant enough to see that there was something odd about him (but certainly nothing special.) The way the Sorting Hat took so long. What could have taken so long? How could the Boy-Who-Lived not get put in with the rest of the self-righteous, courageous, idiots, Griffindor lot? Or that silly butterfly that went to him at breakfast. The way others spoke about it you would think that a green and yellow striped phoenix had landed no his finger. Did people not relies that it would be simple to charm any sort of insect or other small creature to do a simple task like that. Soon he would show everyone that there was nothing amazing about Harry Potter.

It seemed that an opportunity arose when it was posted that Slytherin and Gryffindor would have flying lessons together. The idea that Draco needed lessons on how to fly was absurd but it was mandatory for all first years. These lessons were for incompetents who had never even touched a broom before. Mudbloods and people who lived around of were raised by muggles, people like Harry Potter.

At Breakfast on Thursday many people were talking about the upcoming flying lessons, including the Gryffindorks. The Granger girl was delusional, even from the Slytherin Table he could hear he talking loudly about how she had read a book about flying tips. It was pathetic how she thought she could learn everything from a book. It was also a complete embarrassment to all purebloods that the Longbottom boy hung on to her every word like a lifeline. Draco wondered how he got into a house known for its courage, the way he quivered would make you think he was Quirrell's son.

The owl post arrived, however there was no care package from his mother and no stupid butterflys for Potter. However an owl did deliver something to the quivering Gryffindor, Longbottom.

The pureblood quickly finished him his breakfast and got up walking down the aisle between Gryffindor and Slytherin, followed by his cohorts Crabbe and Goyle. As he passed he saw what Neville had gotten, some sort of large gem or marble. Draco's curiosity got the better of him and he snatched the object right out of the other boy's hand.

The redheaded Weasley jumped up from his seat, obviously angry and maybe looking for a fight. Potter just turned his eyes narrowing in annoyance. Draco sneered, Potter was always doing that. You could never get much of an reaction out of him. In potions Professor Snape would do things that would have any other Gryffindor up in arms. The only biggest reaction out of Potter was a flash of irritation or anger on his face that disappeared faster then it appeared.

"What's going on here?" The Gryffindor head of house interrupted his thoughts.

"Malfoy's got my remembrall." Neville whined."

'_Meddlesome old witch._' Draco thought. "I was just looking at it," He said, returning the stupid glass sphere. He left the group of Gryffindors followed by this Crabbe and Goyle. He would just have to prove his point later.

Draco would show that The-Boy-Who-Lived was nothing special. There was no way a fool raised by muggles could ever hope to out fly a pureblood that grew up around magic. It was his heritage and no halfblood with a special nickname was better than him.

That afternoon the Slytherin and Gryffindor first years gathered on the flat lawn of the grounds. Draco watched as Madam Hooch came and directed everyone to line up beside the brooms set out in a row. She then instructed them all to reach out their hands and say up.

The blond rolled his eyes, this was so simple. "Up!" he commanded, and the old broom shot up into his hand. Smiling at his success he looked down the line of students. Very few of the others had accomplished the easy task. Draco was disappointed when he saw that Crabbe's broom had only wobbled a bit then lay back on the ground, and Goyle's had only risen in the back so he now held the brush end of the broom. He knew that both of the other boys were not great thinkers. He hung around them for two reasons, one, their fathers owed his father so they were told to watch his back. Two, because they treated with the respect he deserved.

Looking further down the line he saw the mudblood's broom only quiver and then lay still. Ron Weasley and Potter's brooms were both in hand just like his. Weasley with a big smile on his face, Harry with his eyebrows lifted in interest.

Draco Sneered, and thought. '_Just some luck for Potter, and Weasley must be thrilled just being able to hold a broom, his family couldn't even afford an ancient broom like these._'

Then Madam Hooch told them to mount and went around giving tips on grip and other little things.

"You boy," she said to Malfoy. "Bring your left hand up further on the broom."

"What?" He questioned sounding offended. "I have always held my broom like this and I've been flying for years."

"Well then you have been doing it wrong for years." She replied, moving his hand to the correct position.

'_Wizened old hag,_' Draco thought as Madam Hooch moved on down the line. '_this is what feels natural, and its worked perfectly all these years so how is it wrong?_'

"Alright everyone." Madam Hooch called. "On the count of three push off the ground fly up a few feet and then come back down by leaning slightly forward. One- Two-

Draco snickered as Neville Longbottom pushed off too early, he was holding on to his broom for dear life with his eyes closed. Madam Hooch calling him back. Neville finally opened his eyes when he was almost thirty feet in the air and turned white when he saw how high he was and that there was no one else with him. His body went limp as he fell of the side of the broom and fell to earth with a 'Whump' and a distinct loud pop sound.

Madam Hooch scurried over to the fallen Gryffindor, muttering things about a broken wrist. Draco was actually surprised that Neville got away with just that, as he lay on the ground whimpering tears rolling down his round cheeks. Hooch then took Longbottom up to the hospital wing, after threatening expulsion if there was any horse play on the brooms.

"Did you see his face, the great lump." Draco said. While Crabbe and Goyle guffawed.

"Yeah," Theodore Nott joined in. "Who gets so terrified about falling off a broom that it causes them to fall off?"

"Shut up you jerks." Snapped Parvati Patil

Draco rolled his eyes at the antics of the Gryffindor girl. "What? We are just telling the truth."

"That's right," Pansy Parkinson responded. "Why are you so angry? Do you have a crush on the little cry baby?"

Several other people in Gryffindor and Slytherin exchanged words. Although Harry Potter was sitting in the grass besides his broom. Draco looked at the other boy with contempt when he noticed a little glimmer in the grass.

"Look!" He said, darting forward and snatching the object off the ground. "Its that stupid little thing Longbottom was sent this morning."

Ron Weasley stepped forward his hand extended "Give it to me, Malfoy."

The blond pureblood smirked. "Why Weasley? Do you want it so you can go sell it for enough money so you can pay your tuition here at Hogwarts. No I think I should do the right thing and put it in a safe place, like up in a tree."

Ron's face was growing red when Harry Potter got up out of the grass and walked towards them.

"Malfloy" Harry said condescendingly. "I'm sure if you really want one of those I am sure your big daddy can get you one with all that money you keep bragging that your family has. Why don't you be a good boy give it up?"

Draco frowned poisonously, Potter was always doing that. He kept on talking to him in sarcastic tones, like he was speaking to a child. The pureblood was not about to take that, he was better than Harry and he would prove it. Malfoy quickly grabbed his broom and jumped on quickly flying upwards. As soon as he got to a respectable height.

"Why don't you come and get it Scar-head." Draco called down to them.

'_Come on Potter, there's no way you will be able to get me with out looking like a fool on a broom._' He thought maliciously as he saw Harry on the ground looking up at him with a calculating look on his face.

"What's the matter? Not scared are you?" Draco called taunting.

Malfoy could see Harry sigh then ignoring some protest Hermione made quickly grabbed his broom, mounting it and kicking off the ground. '_Yes!_' Draco thought victoriously.

His enthusiasm was quickly cut short at he noticed Harry's flying. There was not any wobbles or anything irregular in flight upwards. Harry was gaining altitude a confident smile on his lips, then suddenly his broom tip pointed at Draco and he rocketed towards him.

The pureblood what shocked at how easily Potter flew on the broom. The other boy gained the same altitude as him and slowed hovering close to each other.

"Whoo this is fun, now why don't you give me Neville's remembrall." Harry said, holding out his hand fearlessly. "You might need both hands free to hold on to your broom it's a long way down."

Draco looked down suddenly feeling uncomfortable in the air alone with Potter. Some how he was a great flyer, the Gryffindor seemed so confident on his broom. '_How can he look so natural on a broom, this is his first time flying._'

The young Slytherin gathered some self control, doing his best to ignore his enviousness alone in the air with the other boy.

"You want it catch it!" Draco said spitefully, thowing the glass sphere up in the air. He was hoping to save face a little as he hurled the ball away not caring if the remembrall broke. His plan to make Potter look foolish failed at least this way he could get some satisfaction out of it.

Malfoy however did not expect Harry to go blasting off after the falling object. The Boy-Who-Lived was in a dive after the glass ball. As he watched there were so many thoughts going thorough his head, what if he crashed trying to catch it? Would he get in trouble if the other boy got hurt or died. Was that a bad thing if he did crash?

Before he could finish any of his thoughts the Gryffindor reached out his had and grabbed the remembrall out of the air and pulled out of his dive. Potter pulled up a foot or so off the ground, grass blowing violently around him. It looked so easy when he put relaxed his feet from under him and touched the ground still moving quickly over the ground, his feet hit and he started running. He stumbled a little, but then he pulled the broom from between his legs and lifted it above his head with the remembrall in his other hand. Harry decelerated and eventually came to a stop.

Several other people cheered at Harry's unexpected display when they were all silenced by a loud. "HARRY POTTER!" The head of the Gryffindor house was heading towards her charge in a very swift walk. Draco wondered if anyone had ever seen her actually run or would it be too indignant for her to do something like that.

"How could you be so reckless!" Draco heard her say from where he still was, suspended in the air. "Never in all my years- What were you thinking?" McGonagall seemed to be too shocked to speck properly.

Malfoy could not hear what exactly was going on down on the ground but he could tell that several of the other were trying to defend Potter, Weasley even pointed up to him.

The Transfiguration teacher held up her hand and then beckoned Harry to follow her. Draco was finally recovering from his shock at the other boy was being lead off to the castle. Then a huge smile appeared on his face. He had just gotten Harry in huge trouble and gotten off free himself. It could not have got better if he had planned it. He slowly floated down to Crabbe and Goyle smiles on both of their faces. From what Madam Hooch had said Harry Potter would soon be expelled from Hogwarts, everything was great.

Harry Potter sat at dinner slightly confused but pleased none the less. Ron was once again hovering around him.

* * *

"Seeker I can't believe it." Ron said in wonder.

"Yeah the team captain Wood told me that I was the youngest Seeker in a century." Harry responded nonchalantly. Quidditch seemed like an interesting game. It was strange because flying on broom was a lot different the flying in his Soul Reaper form. Both forms of flying were enjoyable but he was just so used to flying on his own power.

Harry went back to his food as Ron babbled about random information about Quidditch. Eventually the Twins wandered by.

"Congratulations Harry, we just heard from Wood." George said. "We're both on the team too, Beaters. In fact my twin here is the best Beater in the school."

"Quite right." Fred responded puffing himself up comically. "My skills are only matched by the other Gryffindor beater and oddly enough he bears a striking resemblance to me."

"Anyway so when are you going to announce this and shock the student body into silence for the third time in less then a month?"

"Wouldn't it be the forth time George? Twice at the sorting feast once for when his name was called and the other for him taking so long. Which is still unknown as to why and some wild rumors are starting to fly."

"Many rumors, might I add," Said George. "But anyway I guess you would be right, twice at the sorting feast and once with taming of the butterfly. Which is also a cause for some of the rumors. So when are you going to announce that you are the youngest seeker in a century?"

Harry was about to tell them that Wood did not want it announced in order to have an ace up their sleeve.

"So four times in a month." Fred said before Harry could speak. "I wonder if they keep records of stuff like that because if Harry has not broken it already he is sure to be in the running. Well sorry we can't talk longer but Lee says he has something to tell us about, Talk to you later."

Fred and George both stood up in perfect unison and headed further down the table.

Harry watched the duo walk away and shook his head. Even though he had been happy for things to have stayed the same at the Dursleys and going to the Soul Society ever night he was really enjoying Hogwarts.

However just as soon as The Twins left something that he did not enjoy came walking toward him. Draco Malfoy flanked by his two miniature Neanderthals came up to him.

"Oh it looks like they are being kind to you and not sending you home on an empty stomach. I don't see how it would matter to you getting expelled and all. I mean you have living with Muggles and all, so why would you care if you won't be able to do magic ever again?"

Harry sighed, surprisingly Malfoy was getting on his nerves much more than anticipated. He could control his emotions very well but it seemed that the pure blood kept finding ways under his skin. Not that he really showed it ,but if Harry was honest with himself he would have not have flown up to challenge Malfoy at flying lessons if the blond had not been so irritating with his actions.

It was amazing that someone out there was more than all the Dursleys combined. First, it seemed that Draco was more spoiled than Dudley. Second, he was just as big as a bully as Vernon and Dudley, exept Draco used different tactics and less physical ability to back it up. Thirdly, The way he looked at almost everyone else reminded Harry of Petunia and how she looked down her nose at anything that did not fit in her perfect world.

Harry thoughts were interrupted by Malfoy speaking again.

"Don't ignore me Potter. How does if feel to be getting shipped out of here?"

Harry turned to look at the other boy. "My aren't you confident now that you have your two goons here with you. I don't like bullies, especially if said bully needs two other people to watch his back because he can't protect himself."

"Don't speak to me like that Potter. I am not a bully, and I do not need protection. I could take you on anytime, in fact I challenge you to a Wizard's duel. Wands only, no contact."

"Please don't get ahead of yourself, I could beat you without a wand and one hand behind my back."

Beside him Ron gasped. Harry looked over and noticed that several people around him were paying close attention to the conversation.

Malfoy snorted a laugh. "I knew you were a fool Potter." He said with a smirk. "If those are your conditions we will duel immediately." Draco started walking briskly towards the head table.

"What are you doing? Ron asked incredulously. "I know you were just joking but Draco can view it as terms of the duel, which you can set as the one being challenged."

Harry rolled his eyes and sighed, it seemed that the situation could be getting problematic very quickly.

Draco however was having a great time, Potter had just set another nail in his own coffin the only outcomes were to fight the duel and lose terribly or back out and sacrifice his honor. Even though Madam Hooch said that anyone caught flying would be expelled he would bet that the old coot Dumbledore was willing to go to any lengths to keep the famous Harry Potter at Hogwarts. Draco was simply enjoying his own thoughts of showing everyone how pathetic Potter was.

Harry saw Malfoy walk up to Professor Snape with a big grin on his face. They started talking, Snape looked up narrowing his eyes in his direction. Snape then leaned over and started talking to Professor Dumbledore, who nodded a few times then his eyebrows rose towards his hairline. The Headmaster looked over his glasses directly at Harry then beckoned him up to the head table, something that many other in the room noticed.

Harry walked up to then, Draco smiling victoriously, Snape sneering and Dumbledore's face was a mix of emotions.

"Hello Harry," Said the elderly Headmaster. "Mr. Malfoy here tells us of a duel with some interesting conditions would you care to enlighten us?"

Before Harry could speak Snape interrupted. "Draco here tell us that you have insulted him for the last time. You might not know this but honor is precious to wizards, and Draco will no longer sit back as you try to besmear his.

Harry sighed. "I did not mean to dirty whatever honor Malfoy might have, I was just stating things as I saw them."

"Please boys, there is no reason we can't be civil. There is no need to have a duel over simple words." The Headmaster said.

"No!" Draco snapped. "I challenged Potter to a duel and he decided to mock me again by declaring the terms for himself of no wand and one arm behind his back."

Dumbledore looked back at Harry. "Did you agree to the duel under these terms?"

Harry though to himself that it would seem that now that the teachers were involved it was not likely he could get out of a duel. He had already drawn so much attention towards himself, so he did not see how more would be a catastrophe. A plan was already forming in his head to throw off anybody trying to dig into his secrets. Also the Soul Reaper really wanted to wipe the smirk off of Malfoy's face.

"I said I could beat Malfoy without my wand and one arm behind my back ."

Professor Snape scoffed "Your arrogance and stupidity surprises even me Potter. There is no way you could defeat Draco without a wand, especially since one of the rules is no contact. So no filthy muggle fighting if that is what you were hoping for."

"Now Severus there is no need for these words." Dumbledore said. "Now Harry there is no dishonor in forfeiting the duel. You would have to apologize to Mr. Malfoy but under the circumstances people would understand. After all even I might not be able to be victorious if the conditions were the same."

Harry kept his face emotionless. "No Sir, I will not apologize to Malfoy everything I said was true. I will participate in this duel no matter how one sided it is."

Dumbledore's eyebrows rose again "Alright if you both are in agreement. I don't think there is need for seconds with everyone here to witness, are you both in agreement?" Draco and Harry nodded . "As you should know Mr. Malfoy dueling to the death has been outlawed for quite some time unless special circumstances are met, and this is not one of those cases."

"I know that." The blond pureblood said snappishly. He was not going to really hurt Potter but he knew enough spells thanks to his father that he could rough him up a bit. He already had a plan to deal with The-Boy-Who-Lived, a quick spell to immobilize him and then everything else would be easy.

"Excuse me students" Dumbledore called standing up. ""Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter have requested a duel here now with some interesting conditions. Mr. Potter if you would be so kind I will hold on to you wand for the duration of the duel."

Harry handed his wand to the Headmaster. "Now will you both take your positions I will set up some dueling shields. You may begin on my signal " Albus Dumbledore was of mixed emotions about the duel. Harry seemed far to calm, but it was nearly unthinkable that he would be able to do anything without a wand. His best guess was that Harry was just being stubborn, that he got caught up in the duel and would not apologize to Malfoy. Normally he would never allow a duel like this to take place in from of meal time. However Harry Potter was much too self-reliant, maybe a little bit of humiliation would make him a bit meeker.

Harry stood opposite Malfoy, it seemed that the Headmaster had finished the shields although he did not see any sort of barrier around them.

"Now bow to you opponent," Dumbledore called. They both gave each other small bows, Harry noted the large smile on Malfoy's face. Around him the students and teacher were talking in quite whispers. "Ready." Dumbledore said in a commanding voice., and Draco got into a ready stance, Harry simply put his left arm behind his back. "Begin."

Draco was in motion his wand moving. "Impedimenta!" He yelled sending a light blue bolt of light at Harry. The-Boy-Who-Lived saw the spell coming and easily ducked under it. He crossed his right arm across his chest with two fingers extended. "Bakudo number one Sai!" Harry said in a confident tone, making a slashing motion with his finger in Draco's direction.

The smirk on Malfoy's face disappeared with surprising speed as his arms were yanked behind him by and unseen force. Amazingly held on to his hand as his arms crossed behind his back, then his legs gave out from under him and he fell to his knees and fell forwards inadvertently bowing again to Harry.

"H-how did you?" Draco asked shocked.

"Not important right now. So do you give up?" Harry asked just a little smugly.

"Never!" the boy on the floor yelled as he maneuvered his wrists and pointed his wand at Harry." Stupefy!" Sending a spell over his head that was completely off target and Harry watched the red bolt of light fly far above him as it hit the invisible dueling shields and disappeared.

He turned back to Draco, and shook his head. '_Its almost sad, he has no idea what he is dealing with. Oh well,_' he thought. "Hado Number one," The young Soul Reaper called, one finger pointing at his target on the floor. "Sho!" His kido spell hit Malfoy in his shoulder sending him backwards ten feet skidding and spinning across the floor. Draco's wand slipped form his grasp from the blow and it started to slowly rolled away along the castle stones.

Harry looked away from the disheveled form of Malfoy lying on the floor. Looking up he saw the entire room had once again gone silent from something he had done.

'_I wonder if there really is a record?_' Harry thought passively.

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(Author Notes) If you do not know what Kido spell Harry used you can always go to the Bleach Wiki, Go ahead and Google search it. They basically have a wiki for everything. I will be gracious and help you out. Bakudo Number 1 Sai. (Translated restraint. Locks a target's arms in place behind their back.)

Hado Number 1 Sho. (Translated thrust. Pushes the target away from the caster.)

Right hope that helps remember reviews make me happy and happy authors write more. Feel free to give me any sort of ideas or constructive criticism_. _


	10. Angry Aftermath

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

(Author Notes) Pretty long chapter this time. I was surprised by the different reviews last time, all I have to say is keep them coming constructive criticism is just as good if not better than a quick review saying good job.

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Harry stood his finger still pointing down at Malfoy when Dumbledore's voice was heard in the silence. "Hold." He said standing up from his seat at the head Table. "I think it would be wise if this duel was called in Mr. Potter's favor."

"No!" Draco moaned on the ground. "I can't lose to him, I wont."

'Mr. Malfoy," Sighed Dumbledore. "You have been disarmed and somehow bound, you are completely at the mercy of Mr. Potter, since duels can't be fought to the death, if you won't admit defeat then I will simply have to end this duel in Mr. Potter's favor."

A large frown appeared on Draco's face as he barely held back his rage, and frustration. Every thing had gone wrong for him. After everything seemed like it was going right for him, it blew up in his face.

Professor Dumbledore was unnerved although he would not show it, playing it off as sadness for Draco's predicament. His predictions of Harry were again proven to be no where near the reality of the young eleven year old. This of course to the aged wizard was extremely troubling. So many questions needed to be answered , but now was not the time for them to be asked.

"Quiet extraordinary Mr. Potter may I ask how you preformed such a feat without a wand?" The Headmaster asked innocently, his eyes sparkling as he smiled.

"Magic." Harry stated simply, his voice calm as he lied so easily. Of course he knew that there was a very big difference between magic and what he had just done. However there should be no reason why they would suspect otherwise.

The sparkling in the Headmaster's eyes decreased slightly, however the smile stayed affixed. He was not very happy about the simple answer even if it did seemingly answer his question.

"Oh yes, of course." Albus faked a chuckle. "Perhaps some other time you could tell me how you learned such a talent."

Harry looked around as almost everyone gapped at him. Looking at the Griffindor table he could see Ron his face shined with poorly contained glee., and Hermione had her bottom lip in between her teeth. She looked like she was torn between being somewhere else and rushing him with questions. Many at the Slytherin table had sour looks on their faces. Most Hufflepuffs had looks of awe affixed, and the Ravenclaws were a mix of surprise and curiosity.

Harry heard the Headmaster attempt to start talking again when an angry cawing was heard coming for the door to the entrance hall. Agrona swooped though the large open doorway heading for Harry as every eye watcher her progress. The raven alighted on the top of Harry's head looking quite forbidding. Harry as well as every one else in the great hall was taken back by the raven's sudden appearance. It was quite easy to tell that the raven hopping up and down on the top of his head was quite angry. Harry's eyes squinted as the bouncing from his familiar shifted his hair around as she flapped her wings to keep balance.

Agrona stopped bouncing and gained a firm perch, her black eyes glared down at the messy form of Malfoy. She gave him a loud caw and clapped her beck a few times, before she hopped down onto Harry shoulder. Agrona grabbed hold of the collar of Harry's robe in her claws a took flight his robes still in her grip. Everyone watched in bewilderment as the black bird basically dragged The-Boy-Who-Lived out of the great hall, leaving the rest of the student body blinking in confusion at his absence. No one paid any attention to the blond pure blood still lying on the floor his arms stuck behind his back.

Harry was torn between different feelings as he offered little resistance as his raven dragged him through the castle. He was very surprised by her appearance, but also pleased to be out of the Great Hall. His happiness disappeared as Agrona released him and flew back to his shoulder and pecked him in the side of his head.

"Ow!" He uttered as he flinched. "What was th- ow ow OW!" Agrona pecked him repeatedly

"Please, stop it Agrona!" Harry said covering the side of his head with his hand to protect it

"Ouch!" He yelped. Seeing his defense the raven went for another target of opportunity and attacked his ear.

"Arhg rabid bird!" Harry brushed his familiar off his shoulder making her flutter to the ground. "What did I do to make you so angry and why are you even here?"

Agrona started to walk down the hallway not even looking back at Harry. The young Soul Reaper followed after his obviously irritated raven.

"Wait Agrona, what's going on? Was it something about the duel?"

The raven turned her head giving a small annoyed call in affirmation as she continued her slow pace on her thin legs.

"How did you know I was in a duel?" Harry asked, slightly worried. The only way he could figure was that she had somehow felt the change in his spiritual pressure as he preformed the kido. Which was very unlikely, he was very careful to control his spirit energy so as that the ghosts around the castle would not have felt him. So unless she could detect spirit energies better than he could there had to be some other way she knew he was in a duel. "You know I did not need any help."

Agrona paused in her little walk, Harry heard rather than saw her beck clap several times before she rounded on him and gave the avian version of a tongue lashing, cawing loudly up at him for a good while before she quieted down.

Harry was about to say something to defend himself when Agrona fluffed herself up and hopped up and down as if to get his attention.

The raven settled herself down and put the tip of her beck under her wing as if she was sleeping then her head suddenly jerked up as she looked left and right quickly as if startled by something, she then hoped up and down turning in a circle as if looking for something. Then started hopping about with her wings spread.

Harry was flabbergasted as he realized what she was doing. He really did not expect to be playing a game of charades with an angry bird to be on a list of things he would do today.

Agrona was not done as she puffed herself up and hunched over giving a strong caw at some unseen thing in front of her. She then walked forward a few feet and laid down on her side giving a weak almost wounded call. Then getting back on her feet she got in front of Harry cawing at him and hopping up and down angrily.

Harry was taken back a bit he knew that Agrona was a very special bird with being able to see spirits and also being quite smart, but he really did not expect this from her. "Let me get this right you were asleep and then suddenly woke up because you somehow knew I might be in trouble. So you looked around for me and flew down to the Great hall to find that I had already beaten Malfoy, and so its my fault you got all worked up for no reason?"

The response of a quick caw made Harry hang his head in exasperation. The Gryffindor recover his composure and shook his head, he really should not have been so stunned, after all he had seen Grim do things that would make Lassie look like the class dunce at obedience school. So a raven that seemed to be as bight as she was dark should not have blindsided him.

Harry kneeled down extending his arm to his familiar. "Please come here Agrona, I did not mean to worry you. I'm sorry."

Agrona fluffed herself up hesitating as if making a decision then walked forward and hopped up on his extended limb.

"It was a stupid fight and I won't be purposefully getting into that sort of thing again. Although I have to say you might be too smart for your own good. Is there anyway some treats could help make up for all of this?

The Raven simply shuffled up to his shoulder and clapped her beak a few times.

Albus Dumbledore was not happy. His mind was ablaze of questions, and none of them seemed to have any easy answer. The object of his newfound conundrum had just been dragged out of the Great Hall by his pet raven. The angry black bird had arrived suddenly took her master away just as swift, raising even more questions in his head.

The headmaster looked around the Great Hall students had started to stir again, an excited murmur started slowly raising in decibels. The Supreme Mugwup was certain that this new happening would spark even wilder rumors blazing through the school. Some of the rumors circulating now were so spectacular he was hard pressed to imagine something more farfetched. Stories that he could speak to animals, or that Harry was the reincarnation to Merlin himself, could be heard being told around the castle. The thing that made Dumbledore want to pull his hair out was that for all he knew the stories could be true.

Albus cleared his thoughts and looked down at the magically bound Slytherin still on the ground. "Severus could you please take care of young Mr. Malfoy. I have some things that I need to do, however I wish to speak to you later tonight." He said, then strode out of the room.

The Headmaster was torn between where to go first. Making up his mind he headed towards his office, He had thought to go to the Library 's restricted section to look up anything he could find on wandless magic. Or to confront Harry himself and request some answers.

However He needed to go to get to his office so that he could use some items that he could only use there. "Pop Rocks." Albus said to the Gardian Gargoyle making it hop to the side, granting him entrance.

The first thing he went to upon entering his office was his pensive. The enchanted stone bowl was incredibly helpful even to someone with as good of a memory as he had. It provided a perfect instant replay to any memory put into it, and the memory chosen was the duel just fought at dinner minutes earlier.

Albus closely watched as the memory replayed itself. "Bakudo Number one, Sai!" Potter called slashing two fingers though the air. Malfoy's arms yanked together behind his back like two extremely powerful magnets had suddenly been attached to his wrists. Albus ignored the shock from Draco and the short words between the two boys. The pensive showed Draco's feeble attempt at a retaliation; then. "Hado Number one, Sho!" Harry said, index finger pointing down at his opponent. The spell connected causing Draco to spin away.

Albus ended the memory deep in though. He knew almost nothing about the display of magic he had just seen for the second time. The language that it was spoken in was a mix of English and some other unknown language. Something that did concern him slightly, he considered himself very knowledgeable as far as languages were concerned. After all he spoke seven different languages fluently, eight if you considered Ancient Runes to be a language. Counting his native tongue of English he spoke, French, German, Latin, Russian, Mermish, and Gobbledegook. However he was not familiar with the language Harry had used. For all he knew it could have been made up.

Then there was the wandless magic itself. He had no idea why the spells would be numbered, or even how the magic was performed. He himself could perform some spells without the use of a wand, even if it did weaken the spell and required a great deal of concentration. Albus also knew of other methods to perform magic, but he had never heard of something like this done before. Many other cultures used magic without ever touching a wand. However it was mostly done in some strange ritual with a lot chanting and the smoking of a hallucinogen that would allow the magic to flow better. He thought for sure that he would have heard of something this controlled and effective.

Dumbledore cleared his head he would have to research that out later. He had other things he needed to check on to get to try and get to the bottom of this mystery. He doubted very much that Harry had learned this talent alone, and so he needed to find out where he could have acquired such knowledge. Walking over to one of his odd shiny gizmos Albus began waving his wand above it so he could examine information stored on the mechanism. He had created this monitoring device to be attached to the wards of Private Drive Number four. On top the protective blood wards that would not allow anything with harmful intent to enter the residence, Dumbledore had added several monitoring wards to the property. The blood wards protected Harry from outside harm but that was not all Albus was concerned about. The other wards monitored the use of any magic around the property, the number of occupants, also it specified if those occupants were magical. There was also the tracker directly attached to the boy himself that monitored Harry's general health and location. However that was a very temperamental spell that only worked as long as no significant magic was performed around the boy otherwise it would stop working correctly for a while.

Albus quickly checked through the records and just as he remember no one with any magical abilities besides Harry himself had ever been in the house, just as it should be. Then going over the tracker he checked where besides the house Harry had spent significant time. Other than his school there was no other place Harry had spent enough time to learn controlled wandless magic. Last he checked the magic use records which showed nothing out of the ordinary, the amount of accidental magic was high but not anything that he did not expect from the son of James and Lily Potter. However it certainly was not high enough to account for someone being trained in magic. There seemed to be nothing out of the normal, but he knew better. He knew that there was something amiss he just needed to find out what. After seeing Harry's display of unknown magic he could not ignore it. He needed to track down this mystery.

Harry Potter was sitting in a dark corner of the Gryffindor common room, his face fixed in concentration, and a black raven on his shoulder. The young Soul Reapers thoughts were not very happy, mostly he was not very happy at himself. Looking back at the day was like remembering a hurricane of events, one leading to the other so quickly and unexpected. Even if he did not show his emotions as freely as others he had to admit to himself that he had been on an emotional high all day. It had taken an irate raven pecking some sense into him to bring him down to earth.

His thoughts were interrupted by that same raven's call as someone approached him. Agrona had already fended off several curious people wanting to ask him about the kido he had performed. Most of them were dissuaded from starting a conversation by the threatening black bird.

"Wow, Harry that was amazing what you did to that git Malfoy." Ron said as he walked up ignoring Agrona as she fluffed herself up to make herself look more threatening. "Did you see the look on his face? Hey can you teach me how to do that magic you did?"

"Not right now Ron alright. I just need some time to myself for a bit, I will play you in a game of chess later alright." Harry told the redhead. He wanted to stop the boy before he got started, he did enjoy the other boy's company most of the time but he could often be immature. If he did not redirect ron's thoughts he could see red head pestering him to show him some of that cool wandless magic again.

"Oh alright Harry, sure. Talk to you later." The disappointment and slight worry in Ron's voice were poorly disguised.

Harry did enjoy playing chess with Ron he was extremely good for someone his age, better than he was and he often played chess with Death. Ron might have made a good battle strategist if only for the fact that he did not have enough creativity to plan for unknowns. If he had perfect intelligence before going into a battle he could think of a great attack plan for sure, but it seemed he had not yet been challenged enough to think outside the box.

As Ron left, the green-eyed boy returned his thoughts back to the day. Flying lessons were more enjoyable than he had anticipated.. Flying on a broom was quite a difference experience from flying under his own power as a Soul Reaper. Being on a broom gave him that strange but pleasant ticking sensation in the pit of his stomach, it was like being pulled around instead of the sense of complete control and power when flying as he was used to.

Then Draco Malfoy worked his way into his thoughts. The blond irked him a lot more than he wished to admit. Bullies usually had some underlying cause as to why they tormented other people. Mostly putting others down to feel better about themselves. However it seemed to Harry that Draco bullied other because he felt entitled to belittling others, like it was his job because his last name was Malfoy. Draco either did not think about possible consequences or did not care. He would guess it was the later, maybe stemmed from his father's skill at avoiding unpleasant repercussions from his actions.

From what Harry had leaned from a few hours of research was that Draco's father had been a major supporter of Voldemort during the last war. After the event involving Harry during Halloween many of the Dark Lord's well known followers had escaped imprisonment by claming to have been under the Imperious curse. After researching the curse he found that it would allow the caster to take complete control over their target. This would have possibly explained their actions unless he had found several loopholes within the curse. For one, the curse would grow weaker over time and could be broken by a person with a strong enough will. Also it was much harder to keep someone under the curse if they were ordered to perform actions contrary to their character. So being ordered to act like the willing follower of a megalomaniac should be contradictory for most people out there.

Harry had also gotten transcripts of a few of the Death Eater trials. The information found there was surprisingly lacking. To summarize the judge would read off a very long list of charges which usually including, treason, murder, rape, theft, vandalism, use of illegal magic, arson, and many other charges. The Judge would then ask how the defendant pleaded, and then they would say innocent under the circumstances of being under the Imperious curse and therefore not in control of their actions. After that is where it got ridiculous, The prosecution whose job was to prove guilt basically folded after the plea of innocence. Very little evidence was brought against the accused, and all the evidence was ripped apart by the defense. Even eye witnesses to the crimes were shot down because they could not prove that the accused was in control of their actions when committing the crimes. Even though the eyewitnesses would describe the accused performing acts which in their opinion were done willingly and often joyfully.

The biggest thing that caused Harry to think that the prosecution was somehow bought off was that the use truth serum was never once mentioned. Often in cases of high importance such as murders truth serum would be used, and the prosecution should have requested its use for the Death Eater trials. Truth serum was not used often because it was considered to be an invasion of privacy not to mention the expense and difficulty to brew. It should have been used for a case such as this despite many people (usually shady people) pushing that use of truth serum be banned from use in trials. However for murder cases it was generally acceptable, and could wrap up a trial quickly with only a few questions. If you had nothing to hide when being asked a yes or no question of did you commit the act of murder then you had nothing to worry about.

However even after being cleared of all charges in a questionable trial you would think that the people in power would not want to associate with a suspicious person that either was guilty and got away with his crimes or was innocent with weak willpower and was very susceptible to forms of magical control. Often the accused Death Eaters were reestablished to former government positions or catapulted even higher as a strange way to apologize for the suspicions and troubles caused.

For Harry these questions sent up so many warning flags concerning the government of the new world he now found himself a part of. Death had taught him ways to taking down an enemy organization using the idea of a snake, which was a very appropriate picture in this case. If you cut off the head the body could still thrash around and still cause damage. Also it still allowed for a new head to grow. The only way to completely win was to destroy the snake in its entirety. The snake's head (Voldemort) had been defeated, but many of his followers (the body) still remained. It was just another thing that Harry had to think about since he was now apart of the Wizarding World.

Harry cleared his thoughts away from Death Eaters and back to the events of the day. Draco's actions at flying lessons should not have bothered him to the point of retaliation. He had often protected other students from Dudley's gang, but he had never been caught or specifically broken a rule to do so. However he did so when flying up after the detestable pureblood. Maybe it was the way that Malfoy had desired to cause even more misfortune to Neville who had just broken his wrist. Thinking about Neville reminded him about the crystal sphere still in his pocket, he would have to return it to him once he got out of the hospital wing.

Even afterwards when he had been caught everything with McGonagall had happened so quickly he really did not get asked if he wanted to be part of the Quidditch team. The idea of being on a team for the strange sport intrigued him, it was also interesting to hear that his father had played. But now that he had time to think he wondered if it was that great of an idea. It would draw more attention to him and might distract from his studies Eventually Harry decided to give it a try he could quite later if he needed to.

Now his actions at dinner disappointed him the most. Malfoy had in a round about way basically goaded him into the duel, and he had let him. It would not have been that terrible to apologize if it meant that he would have been able to get out of a pointless fight. Fighting pointlessly was never a good idea, but he really should not be drawing even more attention to himself. He might be able to pass his kido abilities off as a form or magic for now but that did not mean people would not be able to tell that it really was not magic.

Although, people now knowing of his Kido could be both a blessing and a curse. He could use it more openly if he needed to, but people would of course be curious about it. He would need to be careful to make sure people had no reason to not think of it as a form of magic. There was also the ghosts around the castle to worry about, if he put too much power into one of his kido spell it was likely that they might feel his spiritual pressure. He had been careful that he had only used minimal power when using the two spells on Malfoy. So even if he forgot to release Draco when Agrona had dragged him off it should not matter that much, since he had used barely any power and dropped the spirit chant so the bakudo should have only restrained Malfoy for several minutes. Agrona had pulled him out of the Great Hall so suddenly Harry also forgot his wand with Professor Dumbledore, he would have to get that later. Agrona had been quite angry but several treats had lightened her mood.

Agrona again fluffed herself up and cawed at an approaching person. "How did you do that at dinner today?" Asked a voice Harry recognized as Hermione Granger. Harry looked up at the bushy headed girl.

"I was just in the library trying to find anything on wandless magic. What little I found said it was extremely hard to perform and took years of practice to perform anything at all. So how were you able to do it?" Hermione asked in a bossy nearly demanding voice, the way she spoke made it sound as if Harry had broken some sort of unwritten rule.

Harry could tell that she was not going to be scared away by Agrona and telling her that he would talk about it later was not going to suffice for her. "Hello Hermione, what was it that you wanted?" He said, keeping his tone neutral. The bright girl puzzled him slightly, Hermione was obviously quite intelligent and mature compared to most of the other first years. However the way she talked to others make come of as bossy and snobbish, which of course seemed to rub others the wrong way. He would often see her surrounded by books and only books in the library. She would often send different sorts of looks in his direction that could be seen as suspicion, contempt, curiosity or annoyance.

"How did you perform wandless magic at dinner today, and what sort of incantation was that? I have never read or heard of any incantation like that, and that language you spoke in wasn't Latin was it?" Hermione asked barely pausing or taking a breath.

Harry looked at the girl questioning him, he was not sure he wanted to answer any of her questions, but it seemed that she was not going to let up on him unless he gave her something. "No it wasn't Latin." He said.

"Then what language was it?" She demanded.

The young Soul Reaper grimaced before answering. "Japanese." The truth was he did not know why kido had Japanese names, it was something he never had asked Death before. He did not speak Japanese but he did know the meanings of the names.

"But what does it mean? And why did you give the spell a number? Where did you learn how to do it?" Hermione inquired. It was obvious that she had lots of questions some of which he would not be comfortable answering.

"Sorry Hermione, I just can't tell you everything now can I? Harry said giving the his fellow Gryffindor a small apologetic smile.

The bushy haired girl frowned. "Fine." She said her voice slightly angry. "If you won't help me then I guess I will have to experiment. Now if I can remember how you did it." Hermione crossed her arm over her center with two fingers extended. "Bakudo number one, Sai!" She copied Harry very well making a slashing motion at Harry.

Nothing happened.

Harry's eyebrows rose and a smile appeared on his face as he found her attempt quite humorous. Agrona on the other hand did not see Hermione's actions nearly as funny as she slowly fluffed herself up angrily. And Hermione just stood there her arm still extended in the finished motion.

The tense moment in the corner was interrupted by The Twins who were sitting together nearby on a sofa. "Watch out Forge." Fred said loudly, pointing at Harry. "Harry's under attack by his own magic no less."

"NOOOOOOoooooo." George said, extending his voice mockingly, as he raised his arm and slowly got off the sofa. "Muuuust Saaaaavvee Haaaaarrrrryy." The Weasley Twin started to run towards Harry in slow motion, his face stressed in exertion and worry.

Harry and Agrona as well as half the people in the room watched George's lengthy 'dash' to save Harry. When George finally drew near and he extended his arms above his head and performed a mock dive between Harry and Hermione

"AHHHHHhhhhhhh, Ghhhaaaa." George articulated, as he executed his heroic dive to save Harry then pantomimed as if something hit him. He 'landed' and then sank to his knees as his arms slowly crossed behind his back with a cry of, "Urrrhhhaaaa."

Harry looked over at Fred who was frozen with his hand over his mouth his face stuck in an expression of horror. Then looking back at George still on his knees arms behind his back. The scene was so odd especially with Hermione with a lost and confused look on her face to top it all off, Harry snickered. Then the young Soul Reaper broke into full blown laughter as he could no longer hold it in.

Agrona fluttered off of her master's shoulder as it had become an unstable roost because of his laughter. Fred then came over at a normal pace. "Whoa, that was a close one wasn't it Harry." He said in a light voice. "Good thing my brother chose to act as a true Gryffindor and bravely sacrifice himself to save you."

Harry was gaining control of himself but phantom laughs still shook his shoulders. "I don't know what to say." He was eventually was able to speak.

"No words are necessary my friend." Fred said. "It's our job as the Inspiring Weasley Twins to provide an example to the younger members of Gryffindor. No thanks required, but feel free to be awed by our greatness. However Miss Granger don't you know its rude to attack someone with unknown magic. Look what you did to my brother." He said gesturing down to George.

"You alright there brother of mine?" Fred asked. George chose at this time to spring into action getting back to his feet and shaking out his arms.

"Yeah, I'm good. Nothing the Indestructible Weasley Twins couldn't handle."

It seemed Hermione had seen enough of The Twins banter, and with a scoff stalked off to the girl's dormitories.

"Was it something I said, Gred?"

"Either that or something Harry here did."

"Thanks guys." Harry said with a smile on his face. "I needed a good laugh."

"You're welcome, I know we said that no thanks were necessary but,-" George started.

"-Would it be possible,-"

"-if you could-"

"-show us how you did that trick at dinner?" Fred finished.

Harry smile did not slip despite the request. "Sorry, but that's something there's several reasons why I can't help you there."

Fred clicked his tongue. "Oh well. Bad luck brother of mine, even if I did expect as much, with something that amazing. It seems that it would need to be kept under wraps."

"Yes, Although it would be nice if Harry could teach us. Then maybe we could therefore be as mysterious as he is, and then we could become The Indecipherable Weasley Twins."

"Nice one George, we seem to be on quite the roll as far as our spectacular I-N adjective are concerned."

"Right. Anyway Harry, Fred and I have Transfiguration homework we need to work on. We have to try and transfigure a goat so we can then take it and make it eat the homework for the rest of our classes."

"The perfect alibi, lets go. See you later Harry." He waved. "Bye Agrona."

Harry watched as the two redheads walked off together. He sighed, even with all the trouble he found himself getting caught up in Death's Apprentice was really enjoying being at Hogwarts.

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(Author Notes) Hope you enjoyed this chapter next chapter is partially written, so hopefully will be out soon. There are just so much stuff I my head just getting them written in a way that makes sense to other people is the hard part.

I would specifically like to thank username mabidso for giving me a great review that put me into a writing mood, and allowing me to get this chapter out all the faster_. _


	11. Sudden Suprises

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

(Author Notes) Sorry for taking so long in getting this chapter out, You can chalk it up to me procrastinating and finding other things to occupy my time. You can once again thank username mabidso for sending me a private message and telling me in a very polite way to stop slacking and get to work. I would encourage you all to do the same because sometimes that is what an author needs. "Oh boo hoo hoo so your car broke down, so your wife is leaving you this is a good story get to work and post the next chapter." I want to point out that these things did not happen to me it was just an example of the way some readers might feel concerning a story. Sometimes people myself included can't wait to find out what happens next.

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That night Harry waited until the rest of his dorm mates had drifted off to sleep. Grabbing his Soul Candy he and popped one into his mouth and his dark cloaked Soul Reaper form was ejected from his body. As soon as he was released Harry could tell that something was different. His body felt odd, almost tingly or the tiniest trace of an itch. Whatever it was it did not feel normal.

"Something the matter boss?" Gigan asked, seeing Harry looking down at his hand as he rubbed his thumb along his fingers.

"No nothing, just make sure my body gets plenty of rest." He commanded turning and walking away without looking up.

He left Gryffindor Tower slowly pushing open the portrait of The Fat Lady, He quickly slipped out as soon as there was enough room to get through. The Fat Lady scoffed as it seemed the portal had opened by itself and then huffed in annoyance and closed the entryway.

Harry was not sure of what to do with himself, he was tired of exploring around the castle and reading in the library was extremely difficult because beside the problem of finding enough light to read by he had to hide whenever a ghost floated through on their way to somewhere else.

Luckily he did not have to wait long to find something to do, after wandering around for a bit he nearly bumped into the giant of a man Hagrid the groundskeeper. Curious as to what the large man was doing in the castle carrying around a large sack that smelled of blood Harry followed him.

Hagrid moved through the castle unknowingly leading Harry to the forbidden third floor corridor. Just as his title would suggest The Keeper of the Keys pulled out a large iron skeleton key from somewhere within his coat. Hagrid looked around for any sort of onlooker but failed to see the nearby Soul Reaper he unlocked the door.

Harry was able to slip inside unnoticed before Hagrid shut the door after entering. What was on the other side greatly surprised, a huge three headed dog filled the room.

'_There are certainly some interesting things as far as magic is concerned_.' Harry thought to himself, barely noticing Hagrid slowly approaching the massive multi-headed canine.

"Lo' there Fluffy how'r we doin' tonight?" Hagrid spoke in confident and soothing tones. "Are yeh hungry there? I 'ave somethin' for yeh."

Even thought Hagrid was sized very differently then most people, he was still dwarfed by the dog he was slowly nearing. For some reason he did not seemed very threatened by the beast before him, despite the different reactions he seemed to be getting from each different head. The middle head was growling a low warning to the large men. While the head on the left seemed to be sniffing the air tentatively. The right head simply released copious amounts of saliva creating a growing puddle of drool on the floor.

Hagrid seemed to have gotten as close as he was going to approach and he set the large sack on the floor which landed with a squelching sound. Reaching into the bag he pulled out a chunk of meat half the size of Harry.

"Who's doin' a good guardin' job?" The grounds keeper asked the monstrous dog before him as if he was talking to a cuddly puppy. The head on the right seemed to had had enough and released a grumbling whining sound.

"That's a good Cerberus, here yeh go." He said tossing the meat to the animal. The food quickly disappeared as one head shot out and consumed the flying meal. Harry then took his eyes off the fearsome creature and looked around the room. He then noticed under one giant paws of the Cerberus was some sort of trapdoor. '_Well that would explain the guarding job_.' Harry thought to himself, at the same time being curious what might be under there. '_I might have to come back here some time and check it out_.'

Harry watched Hagrid as he continued feeding the beast, until the bag of meat was empty. "There yeh go. Now be good an keep guardin' the stone, I'll be back later." He went and opened the door and Harry again slipped out.

"Now let's see here." Hagrid said, seemingly thinking out loud as he locked the door. "Probably should go an' see Aragon ter ask him if he knows any thin' bout that unicorn a few nights ago."

Harry followed the large man from the shadows as he headed towards the entrance hall. The had just about reached the ground floor when Hagrid stopped. "Lo' there Professor Snape." He said.

Harry saw the potions teacher as he walked briskly past the grounds keeper without returning the greeting. The Soul Reaper was torn between who he wished to follow. While he was curious about the unicorn Hagrid had mentioned, he also took note that Snape was out of the dungeons for something other than a meal.

He eventually decided on tailing Snape, eventually leading up to the seventh floor. "PopRocks." Snape said to a stone gargoyle, which then promptly hopped out off the way. Harry followed silently and snuck onto the moving stone stairs just behind the potions professor. At the top of the stairs Snape pushed open a set of large wooden doors with out pausing.

"Ah Severus, excellent timing." Harry heard the voice of the Headmaster as he entered a large well lit office. Harry walked around the many glittering doohickeys and found himself a quiet corner to stay in, to observer the two adults.

"You said you wanted to see me tonight." Professor Snape said.

"Yes, I was curious about your thoughts about the events at dinner."

The Slytherin head of house grimaced. "I was just as surprised as everyone else, although I should not have been seeing as how the boy seems to come up with new ways to show off."

"I take it you have never seen anything like it before?" Professor Dumbledore asked, tenting his hands together.

"I have not even heard about anything similar before." Snape confirmed, with a scoff" Another thing that surprised me was that after you left telling me to take care of Draco I tried to free him form the spell but was unable to. I tried every counter spell I could think of but nothing worked. I eventually took him to the hospital wing where Poppy also had no success. We were about to send someone to go look for Potter, when after about fifteen minutes the spell broke by itself."

The Headmaster nodded. "Thank you, that information might be useful. Although it is troubling that you could not come up with a counter spell. Perhaps it has something to do with the wandless nature of the spell. Anyway we won't know unless we find out more about Harry's abilities."

"What do you plan on doing about the boy?" Asked Snape. "If need be I could brew some Veritaserum."

The Headmaster grimaced. "No I'm afraid I will not have you dosing students with truth serum, but there is something I would like to check on this weekend, hopefully it should not take me very long. I would like to have no one know about my absence, anything you can do to assure that would be helpful." He said, then he leaned back in his chair with a sigh. "Although you did mentioned before about his Occlumency abilities. I would like you to see how strong his shields are."

"You want me to use Legilimency on a student?" Snape said, with a wide smile.

"Don't get carried away Severus, this is a very special case and you know it. I just want to know if his shields will hold against a focused legilimens assault. It could be that he simply has a strong mind that resists passive Legilimency. We need information even if it is though his mind, but if you think he is aware of your intrusion do not press further. I do not him to be harmed in any way and we don't need him becoming suspicious of you, or at least more suspicious of you, from what I hear of your actions he does not like you so much."

Harry filed away Legilimency and Occlumency to research the meanings of later. "_They are most likely talking about reading my mind since they keep talking about my mind and pulling information from it. I will have to talk to Koukuudenkou about it_." He thought to himself. Harry found it was humorous how the Headmaster did not want him to become suspicious about Snape seeing as Dumbledore did not know that he was in the room listening to everything being said. The Headmaster confused him a little, he was unsure about what to think about Professor Dumbledore himself. The old man seemed to be adamant about digging up information about him, and did not seem to care as to how it was done. Harry doubted that rummaging through someone's thought was an acceptable thing to do in magical culture. However at the same time it seemed as if he was concerned for his wellbeing, perhaps all the students wellbeing seeing as how he told Snape to control himself. The Headmaster did not strike him like Professor Snape who obviously hated him and bullied other students. For now he simply did not have enough information to be able to label Professor Dumbledore as an enemy yet, but he was most certainly going to be cautions around him.

"So you are asking me to be nice as I attack Potter's mind?" Snape asked. with a sneer.

"That's the basic idea, yes. Although I am not sure I would have used those words" The Headmaster confirmed. "That is all I wished to discuss with you, please keep an eye on Harry and tell me anything of relevance. So unless you have anything you wanted say you may leave."

"No, that is all. Goodnight." Snape said turning and leaving, his robes billowing behind him.

Harry followed in the wake of his flowing robes and back to the seventh floor. Once they passed the Gargoyle Harry paused and decided not to follow the Potions teacher anymore. Snape was obviously an extreme introvert, preferring to be by himself alone with his potions. There was unlikely anything else of interest he could glean from following him around for hours on end.

However that still left Harry with hours left in the night with nothing to do. He was kind of tired of exploring the castle new discoveries were becoming harder and harder to find. He had basically looked behind every tapestry, statue and suite of armor in the entire school. There was little doubt in his mind that he had a better grasp of layout of the building than anyone in his class, perhaps a better understanding than the majority of the students at Hogwarts.

Also reading books at the library at night was difficult for several reasons. Being a Soul Reaper and therefore completely comfortable in the dark still did not give him the ability to easily read without a light. While he could create a light using kido, there was also the problem of having to be wary of any ghosts that would float though a wall on their way to somewhere else. So it really did not allow him to have a relaxing time reading at night.

Still undecided about what to do the young Soul Reaper wandered around the school. His wanderings eventually took him by the by the entrance hall when a thought stuck him he had explored thought the interior of the school but had yet to really survey the outside. Besides the trek to the green houses and flying practice he had barely been outside. Harry exited the castled and slowly started walking around the perimeter.

As he was walking around the structure it was slowly dawning on him at how amazing Hogwarts was. The building's title of a simple school belied what it actually was, Hogwarts was nothing else but a fortress. The sheer daunting size alone seemed to laugh at any force that would attack. Everything about the castle spoke of impenetrable defense but still had a tranquil artistic look. Beautiful towers so high that an archer would be able to fire arrows without fear of any counter fire. The walls were made of large masterfully laid stone blocks that showed no sign of weakness or erosion after hundreds of years standing against time. The foundation and dungeons were carved out of solid rock that would allow no tunneling into the castle.

Even the seemingly artistic landscape around the school gave a tactical advantage to defenders while hindering an attack. A simple low stone wall could give cover for a defender looking out but just another obstacle to climb over and was too close to the castle to hide an attacker from arrows shot from the high walls.

Harry finally finished his journey around the perimeter of the castle It had taken him so much time to walk around the massive castle analyzing and admiring the building, that the sky was starting to brighten in the east.

Harry slowly made his way back to Gryffindor Tower content with his activities that night. As he passed by the entrance hall he heard a maniacal cackling that was most certainly the newly freed poltergeist.

"I need more much more." Harry over heard him saying to himself.

Ignoring his curiosity Harry continued till he reached the Portrait of the Fat Lady and waited for someone to exit. The entrance finally opened after a few minutes and Harry made to flash step inside, that is when something went wrong.

As he started moving it felt like something was slowing him down or holding him back. Without even meaning to Harry pored more spirit energy into the technique to even accomplish it to get through the entrance. The young Soul Reaper made it into the common room without disturbing anyone, but whatever had caused the strange occurrence had drained him enough that he needed to catch his breath. Eventually Harry recovered and sighed, he had performed the flash step plenty of time in Hogwarts without any trouble before. Also he was sure that he had released enough spirit pressure that would have been felt by all the ghosts throughout Hogwarts. Something was changing and he did not like not knowing what was happening with his own body. He would like to contact Death and ask if he knew anything. Harry's best guess what that maybe the magic of the castle was starting to effect his soul form. Whatever it was he would have to worry about it later as he headed up the stairs to his body.

* * *

Harry spent much longer getting ready for the day then normal his mind wandering on multiple things. The rest of his dorm mates had gotten up and were readied for breakfast the same time he went down to the great hall. Just as their group was walking down the large stairs a large group of Slytherins were headed up from the dungeons with Draco and his two thugs near the front. The quiet morning chatter was cut off suddenly by the loud laughter of the castle poltergeist. Every eye in the entrance hall watched as Peeves swooped in and floated about the stairs down to the dungeons. Jaws dropped and eyes bulged as Peeves grabbed a short rope that was attached to something hidden in the supports of the ceiling. As the mischievous spirit yanked the rope a gentle 'fooosh' sound could be heard as a large amount of water gushed from the ceiling. Many of the Slytherin girls screamed as the water descended upon them. The deluge of water hit sending the water down the stairs in a flood that soaked nearly every Slytherin on the steps. Malfoy was nearly swept away by the rush water but was saved by either dumb luck or perhaps the quick thinking or Crabb as he grabbed his leader preventing him from being carried down the stairs.

Even as the water stopped and the Slytherins were pulling themselves together Peeves decided to add insult to injury as he cackled madly again and started throwing handfuls of dung bombs down on the soggy group of students.

The Slytherins scattered and some even ran back down stairs, however one girl who wore a Prefect badge yelled up at Peeves over the others screaming.

"How dare you Peeves!" She shrieked, with her hair a mess and makeup smeared. "I'm telling the Barron the first chance I see him, you'll get it for sure!"

"Humph!" Peeves uttered, and then flipped upside-down in the air and put his hands to the side of his head in an impression of antlers. "Go ahead, see if I care." He mocked and blew a raspberry as he floated away.

Harry could almost feel the mix of emotions coming off the Slytherins as they collected themselves. Curiosity got the better of Harry as he made his way over and looked up at the ceiling, "Impressive." He said to himself as he saw no less then three bathtubs that would have been full of water still dripping up by the supports. Somehow Peeves had rigged them up there, How the small spirit had accomplished the task he was unsure of but it was quite ingenious.

"What are you looking at Gryffindorks?" One Slytherin a few years older then them said to the group of first year Gryffindor boys as he passed by leaving an unpleasant smell behind him.

The nearby Draco Malfoy had recovered enough to add his two knuts. "Yeah get out of here."

Harry kept silent as he rolled his eyes and headed towards the Great Hall, but he could not keep the smile off his face as he heard Seamus reply to Malfoy.

"Oh what's wrong Malfoy." Seamus said in mock sympathy. "You look gloomier than a cat caught in a rainstorm, oops bad example."

* * *

Friday continued normally, History of Magic was as boring as always Harry resolved to give the class one more week before he decided to let Gigan suffer through the class. Several people approached him to ask about his display with Draco yesterday. Even some Slytherins approached him despite an effort from Ron to drive them off. Harry politely as possible turned away everyone's questions, although several Ravenclaw students were almost demanding answers as if their lives depended on it. However Ron was just as bad if not worse because of his begging for Harry to teach him. Harry had to firmly deny him and tell him to drop the subject. This caused him to pout for a class before he forgot about it and became his normal self again. Harry tried his best to ignore this, despite his bouts of immaturity Harry still considered him a friend. He always seemed to be willing to help him understand something that would be common knowledge for someone that grew up around magic but was still a new subject for Harry. Ron was following him around more than he would have like and always tried get a seat next to Harry in classes even though Harry would try to switch up who he sat by in classes just to get a feel for the other students in his year. It was nice to be able to talk with other people and not have to worry about Dudley's gang picking on them behind his back. Several students were already on a first name basis with. Susan Bones, Stephen Cornfoot, Ernie Macmillan, and several others were all friendly towards Harry and even Daphne Greengrass had a polite conversation with him.

Dispite Ron's instance that all Slytherins were evil Harry decided on dealing with everyone on a person to person basis, although Slytherin house did seem to have more stuck up snobs than the other houses.

Gryffindor first years did not have potions on Friday so whatever Snape had arranged to do with Dumbledore would have to wait until next week. Although Harry did get into the library in the evening and after much searching was able to find references on both Legilimency and Occlumency and confirmed it was the reading and protecting of thoughts and memories, but he did not find anything on the actual practice of the arts.

Friday ended and Harry once again explored outside the walls of the castle finding a tree he had read about in a herbology book called a Whomping Willow. The young Soul Reaper questioned the wisdom of having such a dangerous plant out in the open on the grounds of a school. He guessed that it could be good for defensive purposes like many things around the school.

After talking to Koukuudenkou, and attempting a flash step by the edges of the castle grounds to ensure that he was far enough away that the ghosts of Hogwarts would not be able to feel his spiritual pressure: Harry confirmed that something was slowing him down. All of his Hoho skills required a much greater amount of spirit energy to perform. But every other skill that he possessed seemed to be unchanged by whatever was affecting him. As it were he could perhaps pull off two short flash steps before becoming exhausted, and that did not please him. That did not even take into account that he would have to release enough spirit pressure to be noticed by every ghost in Hogwarts every time he flash stepped. The ghosts were sure to take notice of something that caused them to feel anything and perhaps do something about it, if they had not started to do so already. So Saturday morning he had to stealth his way back to his body in the Gryffindor tower. He would need to be more cautious around Hogwarts because of whatever was happening to him, he just hopped nothing else would catch him by surprise.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was dressed in a crisp lime green muggle business suit that he straitened as he walked towards his attended destination. Hopefully everything would be quickly taken care of and many of his questions answered so he could return to Hogwarts before he was missed.

The Headmaster stepped up and knocked on the door of the residence, and waited. The door was opened and a polite voice greeted him.

"Hello, May I help you?" The woman said.

"Good morning Petunia Dursley I was wondering if I could come in for a little chat." Albus said, stepping inside without waiting for an answer.

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(Author Notes) Slight cliffy sorry about that, (but not really a good author should put his readers on the edge of their seats for what comes next.) I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed over two hundred reviews. For a crossover of this length I think its pretty good. I will endeavor to stop procrastinating so much and get the next chapter out sooner. More reviews might help me do so, I know I am shameless_._


	12. Mental Warfare

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

(Author Notes) Woot another chapter out fairly quickly I wanted to get this done soon so I could enjoy writing the next chapter for some good stuff I have planned. So feel free to tell me how great I am by putting this chapter out so quickly.

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Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was not very pleased when he exited Number Four Privet Drive. He left the residence with more questions then when he entered. It also did not help that the Dursleys were not very willing to be of assistance. In the end he had to resort to using Legilimency and finishing the meeting with a memory charm, and despite what people might say about him he did not enjoy forcing his will on people. That being said he now regretted making assumptions about the conditions at the Dursleys. After reviewing the memories of each of the occupants of the house he was deeply troubled by what he learned.

While Harry's early treatment at the hands of the Dursleys was despicable, no child should be forced to sleep in an under stairs cupboard. Even if it was deplorable it should have made Harry into being the meek and malleable young boy he was hoping for when first arriving at Hogwarts. The Headmaster had assumed that everything was acceptable at Privet Drive that while relations concerning Harry may have been stressed, in the end the boy was not being spoiled or told about the existence of magic. All of his information gathered from his wards and the squib that he arranged to live nearby told him told him nothing was amiss. Sadly it seemed he was wrong and that the Dursleys were quite good at maintaining a placid exterior.

After extensive use of his Legilimency abilities he saw where everything had changed, with this Janitor character. Somehow, someone was able to enter the house and fool his monitoring wards at the same time. Albus double checked the wards and found nothing wrong with them, either The Janitor had found away around them or had tampered with them without disturbing or showing that they had been changed. Neither one of those options pleased the Headmaster in any way. He was positive that someone highly skilled in magical talent had confronted the Dursleys writing gross messages to them while somehow being completely invisible at the same time, most likely using an invisibility cloak.

That is when things concerning Harry started to noticeably change. From that point on Harry and The Janitor had control of the house, and the meek young boy started to change. Harry started to carry himself differently, he would no longer shy away from his relatives trying to be seen as little as possible. Socialization among the members of the house may still have been limited but Harry started to freely speak to his relatives without fear of what they might do, sometimes he would be openly cynical or sarcastic which he had never done before.

The messages and the way Harry responded to the two adults was troubling enough, however what Albus saw when looking through the memories of Dudley greatly concerned him. The youngest Dursley had to admiringly be one of the most unpleasant children he had ever encountered. Despite his obesity and his willingness to literally throw his weight around, he was spoiled, rude, and uneducated. Before The Janitor started messaging them Dudley's gang would often seek out Harry in order to pick on him with Harry doing little to retaliate. Afterward Harry started to show more and more ability to defend himself. Albus was troubled by both Harry's skill in hand to hand combat and his willingness to use it, even if he only did so for good reasons. Young Mr. Potter was obviously being trained, who was training him ,or how he was being trained, when, where, and why was he being trained Albus could not answer.

It was also strange that looking through the Dursley's memories he never once saw Harry be in any situation that would indicate him being taught or practicing any of his skills. He never mentioned anything about magic and his relatives never spoke about magic often adamantly denying its existence. However when his Hogwarts letter showed up Harry did not seem to be taken by surprise and The Janitor's foreknowledge about the contents of the letter told him that Harry was already aware of the existence of Magic.

However everything that the Headmaster had seen about Harry said that he was mostly ignorant about the magical world, even if the boy was learning quickly about it. Although that did not take into account his strange but obviously magical display earlier that week, but it could point to Harry knowing about a completely different magical culture.

Albus had spent much of his time on Friday researching anything he could find about Harry's wandless magical display. He learned that the language he had spoke was Japanese, that lead him into researching all he could about the history of magical Japanese culture. Nothing he found helped nothing pointed to anything like what he had seen Harry perform.

Japanese magic was quite similar to other things he had heard about. Magic was often performed through rituals and ceremonies that required things such as chanting or music, and would often burn incense. He found mention of Seals which sounded a lot like Ancient Runes or Arithmancy. Sometimes their magic would incorporate staffs and hand signs with the staffs being quite similar to European wands. He even found an obscure reference of magical weapons being used by some samurai or ninja in their history. At the end of his research he was still left with nothing that would shed light on Harry's abilities.

The Headmaster mentally reprimanded himself for not noticing and taken action sooner. He had planned for the need of sending Hagrid in order to pick Harry up and assist him in picking up his school things. When the need did not arise he assumed that the Dursleys had unexpectedly told Harry about magic and also taken him to Diagon Alley, both of which did not happen. So far many of his assumptions about Harry had been wrong.

Albus quickly went over the things he had expected of Harry Potter and was unhappy that most of his expectations were not met, and that threw all of his plans off. He was not particularly proud of himself for what he had designed to do this year at Hogwarts. If he were honest with himself he was playing a dangerous game just to get information, and he did not need Harry showing him that he had less information than he first thought.

The Headmaster was quite certain that Voldemort was alive and currently on the grounds of Hogwarts or in the Forbidden Forest. He was also certain that Voldemort had some sort of control over Professor Quirrell. He had to be very careful to make sure that none of the students were harmed by the Dark Lord.

Voldemort was after the Sorcerers Stone that Nicolas Flamel had supposedly given to Albus in order to safeguard it from the Dark Lord.

While having tea one day with the over six hundred year old man, Nicolas had mentioned that he had found out that Voldemort was after the stone through his spy network. Hearing that Albus had gotten an idea, that if they could give the impression that Flamel had given him the stone to keep safe then they might be able to find out how Voldemort had been able to stay alive after his body being destroyed, perhaps even capture the dark lord in whatever form he was in.

The idea of Nicolas giving Albus the actual Sorcerer's Stone never actually crossed either of their minds, but Voldemort did not need to know that. After all being over six hundred years old Flamel had dealt with no less than twenty dark lords who had all made some sort for of attempt at stealing the stone, it did not really matter to Nicolas that Voldemort happened to be one of the particularly nasty ones. The ancient alchemist had so much experience dealing with attempted theft by dark lords and many others that it had basically become a game to him.

The Headmaster despite being a close friend, had never actually seen the real stone, but he was once given a general idea of the security around the stone. According to Nicolas he did not even live on the same property that housed the stone. The stone was protected via Fidelius Charm to which Nicolas was the secret keeper to, besides the Fidelius Charm he mentioned many other magical forms of protection. He also mentioned that even if there were no magical protections on the property it was nearly impossible location to get to even with the use of magic.

Those protections only involved The Sorcerer's Stone itself, the residence that Flamel lived in with his wife was also protected by the Fidelius charm, with Albus and only a few other that knew the secret but where however not secret keepers so they could not tell anyone else. Flamel's secret keeper was also protected by the Fidelius charm and so was that persons secret keeper. So the idea that the Sorcerer's Stone was in danger was quite unlikely, one would need to get through all those protections and then overpower Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel who both had over six hundred years of practicing magic under their belts; just to get the information on the true location.

Of course Voldemort did not need to know any of this and Flamel enjoyed the idea so much so that he immediately got up and walked out to the garden, picking up a shiny piece of rose quarts he tossed it to Albus saying. "Here's your wild goose let the chase begin."

Apparently it was important to keep oneself entertained after having lived that long, after all when you could look at the recent news and say. "Look honey a new dark lord has risen this one calls himself Grindelwald." Or. "Oooo look, this time the dark lord is a woman. What do we call that? A dark lordess?" Or even. "Some fool of a supreme ruler got himself involved in a land war in Asia and lost, _again_." Events could seem to repeat themselves and it was harder and harder to find something new and exciting. Albus had once asked Nicolas why he had simply just stopped drinking the Elixir and continued on to the next great adventure, to which he responded.

"Don't get me wrong Albus I hold no fear of death, but I can't die now. Have you seen what those muggles are up to? If I wait another century I might get to go to Mars. Maybe someday soon I will fake my own death and start everything new again just to switch things up."

Albus Shook his head in order get his thoughts back on track. So far all the plans concerning Voldemort's attempts at the Sorcerer's Stone were right were he expected them to be. Both He and Snape were keeping a close eye on Quirrel's activities. So far he had not made any attempt at getting past any of the obstacles, most likely because he had not found a way by Fluffy. Failing to pass by the giant dog could easily mean death, something that dissuaded most people.

However plans for Harry were nowhere near on track, even though he loathed doing it Harry Potter needed to play a part in the future of the Wizarding World. So far almost nothing had gone as planned. Hagrid had not told Harry of the existence of magic or taken him to Gringotts where he would have retrieved the fake Sorcerer's stone and therefore hopefully peaking his childhood curiosity. Even if it was unlikely Albus was hoping for a confrontation between Harry and Voldemort, perhaps fate would somehow guide a meeting.

The Headmaster truly cared for all of his students and did want what was best for Harry, but many times the world did not work like that and what you wanted could be very different than what was needed. After all he still did not really know what happened that night, but he was willing to bet that somehow a connection had formed between Harry Potter and Voldemort, and the world might very well need that connection to be broken by any means necessary.

* * *

Sunday Harry was surprised by the delivery of a Nimbus 2000 racing broom in the post. Malfoy did try to make a scene, threatening to get him expelled. However thanks to some intervention by Professor Flitwick, Malfoy and his two cronies were all left behind with the same dumb expression.

Monday eventually came around bringing with it the return of classes. However the morning post brought him another surprise as another Hell Butterfly fluttered to him. Harry exited as discretely as possible despite all eyes being on him once again.

"_Hello Harry, I hope that everything in school is going well. Everything is continuing as normal here, although Grim has been entering the World of the Living more often in order to distract himself from your absence. I think he does it just to see the look of shock on the poor people that are able to see him. Anyway I was curious if you found out any more information on the ghost that is able to affect physical things, Peeves you called him? It is very rare that anyone has enough spirit energy to accomplish such a task, and one being there at Hogwarts is surprising._

_I was thinking that since you have had some time to get comfortable at Hogwarts that come a weekend you are able to discreetly slip away from the castle you could come to the Soul Society. Hopefully the gikongan I made for you will be able to handle a day at Hogwarts. Hopefully it could all be done without anybody living or dead noticing. Hope to hear from you soon."_

Harry responded telling his teacher about everything he had learned about Peeves, He also told him about Snape and Professor Dumbledore. Harry also sent the Hell Butterfly asking if Death knew anything about what might be happening to him and whatever might be slowing down his Hoho skills. He finished saying that he would try his best to get to the Soul Society next weekend.

The first year Gryffindors had Potions right after Defense Against the Dark Arts, so after a barely understandable class with Quirrel everyone filed down for another unpleasant class taught by the Slytherin head of house.

Harry had gotten himself paired with Parvati Patil for the class, despite Ron's efforts to shadow him. At the exact time that class was meant to begin Severus Snape came bursting through the door, and waved his wand at the board causing the directions to appear.

"Sit down and be quite. One from your group get the ingredients. Today you will be making the Heating Elixir. It is not difficult so hopefully we will avoid an explosion today, though I doubt it." Snape said looking over at Neville.

"I'll get the ingredients." Parvati offered, heading for the storage cabinet. She got in line when a murmuring started by the cabinet.

"As some of you may have noticed I have left out one crucial thing off of the ingredient list." Snape droned cynically. "Potter! What is the base for this potion?"

Harry tried to think of the answer but was distracted by a very strong tingling sensation in his head, it was so bad it felt like insects were crawling around on the inside of his skull. He collected his thoughts as he saw Hermione's hand shoot up and start to wave about. Harry recalled from his studies that most potions were typically water, oil, or alcohol based, although he had read about potions that were blood based.

"Oil based sir." Harry said tentatively.

"What kind of oil?" The professor snapped back.

The young Soul Reaper was stumped, he could not remember what kind the Heating Elixir used, and it did not help that the tingling sensation in his head was still there. He was sure that it was caused by Snape performing Legilimency on him, besides it being annoying he was getting the distinct feeling that the spirit of his Zanpakuto was getting angry.

"Mineral oil." Harry guessed.

"Wrong!" Blurted Snape. "If we had gone with your directions we would only make a potion that would release large amounts of smoke. Three points from Gryffindor for suggesting such a dangerous thing."

"Can anyone Tell me what kind of oil is meant to be used in this potion?" Snape asked looking around the classroom. Hermione's hand started to waving around wildly as Snape ignored her. "Someone other than Miss Granger?"

The Potions Professor scowled and looked back at Harry, causing the tingling sensation to return. "The correct answer is olive oil. This potion requires two cups so get it and return to your stations."

"Mr. Malfoy could you pleased tell the class what the Warming Elixir does?" Asked Snape.

"Yes sir." Draco chimed. "The Warming Elixir is used to provide a soothing warming sensation where ever applied on the body."

"Excellent five points to Slytherin." Snape praised." The Warming Elixir is for external use only so don't any of you idiots try to drink it. It can provide up to twenty four hours of warmth to anything it is administered to often used in winter to keep extremities warm, and will work all day unless it is countered by salt water."

"I'm glad that some of you know at thing or two about potions unlike others." He said looking back at Harry which again triggered the tingling sensation.

Harry was irked the tingling was maddening and he could tell that Koukuudenkou was very unhappy. "Please Sir," Harry said respectfully. "For your own sake please stop what you are doing."

Proffessor Snape's eyes widened then narrowed, glaring back at the Gryffindor first year. There was suddenly a sharp pain in his head, Harry reached upward just as a image of a very angry Koukuudenkou with electricity arching off the bird, quickly flash behind his eyes. The pain in Harry's head suddenly disappeared just as Snape grasped at his own head. The class gasped as the potions professor tilted to the side stumble twice and crumple to the ground.

* * *

Severus Snape was floating in blackness barely aware of his own existence. Slowly light trickled into his consciousness.

"Severus." Someone called to him.

"Severus Snape. I'm much to busy for you to lay about all day. Wake up." The Slytherin head of house distantly recognized the elderly voice of the Headmaster calling for him to get up.

"Mmmmm." He groaned like a egyptian mummy awakening from a four thousand year sleep. Opening his eyes he saw that he was in the hospital wing the smell of linen and copious amounts of cleansing charm filled his nose.

"What happened?" Severus asked.

"That is what I would like to ask you." Dumbledore answered. "You collapsed during potions this morning, from what I gathered using Legilimens on Harry did not go so well."

"You could say that." Snape said reaching for a nearby glass of water. "I did not follow your directions as closely as I should have and paid for it."

"So what happened, do you remember anything?" Asked the Headmaster.

"Potter has perfect Occlumency shields, as I was testing them he warned me I should stop." Snape said.

"This is disappointing Severus I told you that you should stop if he was aware of your attempts. Now he will be on guard more so than he already is." Dumbledore sighed.

"Yes, but as you said we needed the information. So I tried to force through his defenses. The last thing I remember is that I was able to get through easily, almost too easily. It was like he let me enter, then I was force out so violently that it caused me to lose consciousness. The only thing I was able to see was a very large tree before I was repelled." Severus finished.

Albus stroked his long beard, trying to think if a large tree held any sort of significance. "This is all very troubling. I have been thinking for the past several days and there is some actions we must take to protect everyone just in case."

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(Author Notes) I liked writing this chapter because it give us all an outline into the general thought process of Albus Dumbledore, at least for my story. I find that many stories take the Headmaster into too much of an extreme. Where he is either white (A beneficial old man trying to look out for everybody) or Black (So manipulative he is basically a dark lord.) I am not saying that this is a bad thing, often it can make for a great story.

However I often see stories where everything that he could have manipulated he did manipulate, and then his manipulations are found out and everything comes tumbling down on his own head and he eventually ends up in Azkaban or something like that. While this can give readers the whole "Yeah take that you old coot" feeling, I don't think that it gives the Headmaster enough credit. Dumbledore is a genius, perhaps a mad genius, but a genius none the less. You can bet he has some sort of back up plan, if plan A does not work he still has plan B, C, and D, just in case.

For the Dumbledore in canon you mostly can't help but see him in a good light, and Harry obviously loves him even naming a kid after him. Although that might not necessary have been a good thing, because he also names the same kid after Snape and even though he might have been "the bravest man I ever knew." You really have to stretch your imagination to see Snape as anything more than a giant git.

Anyway you have to question just what type of person would know that Harry needed to die, not tell him about it, and then specifically give him one thing in his will that would help encourage him to continue on his way to have Voldemort off him. If that is not at least slightly manipulative and underhanded I don't know what is. Kind of like giving something sharp to a person on suicide watch.

I think that for Dumbles its more of his thinking that the ends justify the means but only to a certain point, he still has morals, and he does not like to cross certain lines unless he has to. Also it would seem at least to me that Dumbledore does not like to directly get involved. After all one time he got directly involved his sister died, so he feels that he should not hold a position of power. Now you can argue that being the head of the Wizengamot is a position of power but he takes this when he could easily be the Minister of Magic. I just think that Dumbledore does not like the idea of ordering people around. You can find many Dumbledore, and Weasley bash flicks where the Headmaster orders Molly Weasly to loudly proclaim out "What's the number of the platform again?" When being a mother of seven who has been to Platform 9 and 3/4 multiple times should not need to be asking such questions.

Many will say that it is evidence that the Weasley's were working with Dumbledore from the beginning in order to manipulate Harry, so that they could one day be rewarded and that Ginny would eventually marry him keeping Harry away from his one true love Hermione Granger. (not to bash Hermione/Harry parings)

Although the situation could also be explained away as a kind mother of seven wanting to help a scruffy looking boy and his owl that seemed to be lost and lonely.

So in the end I am just trying to make my fiction believable, even if it might be an oxymoron.

Sorry for my long author notes, feel free to ignore them if you should so desire.


	13. Travels and Trolls

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

(Author Notes) Alright I hope it was worth the wait, feel free to tell me if it was. Anyway I got a nice long chapter for you guys. I would have had it out sooner but I got another story idea in my head and I could not get it out unless I at least started it. So I might have a new story I start posting sometime in the near future. Alright guys enjoy.

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The days continued to pass, The school rumor mill worked over time about what had happened during the potions class, some rumors had Harry being attacked by Snape causing Harry to defend himself. Others had Harry as the antagonist, few of the stories were accurate. The most outlandish was that Harry was attacked and eventually forced to defend himself by jumping on a table and blasting Snape into a wall with his "mysterious magic." leaving a man sized impression in the wall. It probably did not help that the rumor was most likely stated by the Incorrigible Weasley Twins, who did an admirable job of acting the events of said rumor with all of the appropriate sound effects.

Quidditch practice had started, Wood made them practice three times a week which wasn't that bad, despite how much the Twins complained. It was actually a bit boring for Harry sometimes, even though he greatly enjoyed flying he really did not see much point in practicing that much for his position on the team. His entire purpose was to find and catch a small golden ball. The only other things he needed to worry about was not getting killed by the Bludgers and staying out of the way of the rest of the team. So running drills on formations and strategy really did not matter to him much.

Although the first training day was interesting despite the mood of everyone else on the team. Wood had them all run laps around the field and because of his training in soul form his physical body was much stronger than it normally would have been. Harry was barely breathing hard when they stopped. while the others were in various states of exhaustion except for Wood who was still supporting himself on his knees.

Harry certainly was not nearly as fast or as strong as he was when in his Soul Reaper form but he was still granted some very nice benefits to his physical body. Although this caused some of the Team to glare up at Harry as they gasped for air on the ground.

"Harry did you take some sort of potion before practice today?" Wood asked, to which he shook his head negative.

"No way." Angelina gasped. "I've already had a year to get used to Wood's torture sessions, how can a first year have no problems keeping up."

Harry just shrugged and said. "Wood was setting the pace the entire time and it wasn't that fast." Apparently the others disagreed, as a round of groaning was heard.

Oliver's eyes seemed to light up about Harry's endurance. "You should all be ashamed that a first year can hack it better than the rest of you lot. We are going to just have to double our physical training to get up to snuff." This caused another and even louder round of groaning from the rest of the team.

"Don't you really see what is going on captain." Fred said as he slowly got to his feet with a strange look on his face. "Harry here is just putting on a brave face because he wants to be on the team so badly. He was afraid that if he didn't do well he would get kicked off, he actually is barely conscious he is so exhausted."

Wood rolled his eyes looking unconvinced. Fred however continued his ploy walking over and putting a hand on Harry's shoulder. "It alright Harry we can all see that you are barely standing, you don't need to pretend anymore. Isn't that right Harry?" Fred finished by sending him a pleading look.

Harry smiled and decided to play along. "Oh my goodness! I feel faint." He said not very convincingly as he fell to his knees. The rest of the team including Oliver smiled as they recognized another one of the twins jests.

"Oh no Fred." George said as he also got up and walked over to help support Harry. "This looks bad, we might have to take him to the hospital wing. Wood we're going to have to cancel the rest of practice for Harry's sake."

"What's that Harry?" Fred asked, leaning down as if to hear Harry better. "You say you need one of our lovely Chaser ladies to perform mouth to mouth resuscitation?"

The three girls on the team huffed in embarrassment and Oliver Wood chose at that time to spoil the fun. "Alright you lot get to your brooms we're going to do some flying drills, and Harry I'm going to release a training Snitch when you think you have _sufficiently_ recovered try and see if you can catch it."

* * *

The week eventually ended and Friday night Harry popped a Soul Candy into his mouth. The young Soul Reaper emerged and paused to speak to his replacement soul.

"Alright. I am going to be gone till Saturday night or maybe Sunday morning. This is going to be the first time you are going to be around other people for an extended period of time so keep a low profile, try to stay in the Library maybe you can find that list of school rules I've been trying to find."

After some confirmation from Gigan, Harry crept out of the Gryffindor tower and continued all the way out of the castle and further into the Forbidden Forest. Harry guessed that he was far enough from the castle so that there would not be any notice of his actions. Reaching up behind him he pulled his blade from its sheath. Performing an action he had done so many times before he thrust his blade forward as it disappeared into nothingness. "Open!." Harry called twisting his weapon.

The Senkaimon opened leading Harry to his real home, the Soul Society. He exited the portal into the blazing light on top of the large plateau in the center of the Seiretei. Taking a deep breath he looked around at the place he loved so much, then suddenly felt the familiar comforting spiritual pressure of his sensei envelope him. Looking across the plateau he saw the cloaked figure of Death coming towards him, followed closely by Grim.

"Hello Sensei." Harry greeted, running up to the only person that he could remember ever truly caring for him.

"It's good to see you Harry. Grim missed you when you were away." Death said in his deep baritone, the giant black dog had sided up to Harry its tail wagging violently.

"Its good to be back, and its nice to see you too Grim you extremely oversized dog you." Harry said grabbing the sides of Grim's head and scratching both ears.

"Come." Death said. "I am sure there is much we have to talk about."

Death and Harry spent several hours talking about Hogwarts and anything of importance that had been happening. Talking about classes were not that important but Harry was sure he saw Death tense under his cloak when he talked about the actions of Professor Snape.

"Yes, now I can see what is happening to your soul form." Death mused after Harry had shown him an example of his changed flash step. "I had already known something was different from the second you exited the Senkaimon. Your spiritual pressure is off slightly, it just feels a little different."

"Is something wrong Sensei?" Harry asked alarmed that he could not sense whatever was different about himself.

"Calm yourself Harry. There is nothing wrong." Death placated his apprentice. "This was somewhat expected although I did not anticipated it affecting your Hoho. Although it is understandable why it might be this way. The magic of your school is starting to gather around you, as I knew it would.

Harry nodded his head remembering Death mentioning this before.

Death continued his explanation. "I know it can be difficult to sense your own spiritual energy but the best way I can explain it is that it feels as if your spirit pressure has been muffled. I think that the magic surrounding you is slowing down your Hoho abilities like you were trying to move through water or you were carrying a heavy weight."

"But Sensei, I though you said that magic does not really affect souls, how can it do this?" Harry asked.

"Yes, _most_ magic can't affect souls, Though we already know that highly magical locations will make souls visible to living beings. The magic could be affecting you differently because of your high amount of spirit energy. Since magic is not any sort of spiritual energy it could easily cause problems as it gathers around you. This would most likely correct itself once you are away from Hogwarts and the magic has time to dissipate."

"So if magic is already gathering around me why have I not become visible to every one in Hogwarts?" Asked Harry.

"Probably you have not gathered enough magic around you yet. However eventually you will become visible, just like all the other spirits in Hogwarts."

Harry sighed. "So is it going to get worse and I won't able to use any Hoho at all and what about my kido?"

"I cannot be certain Harry. If you are lucky it will only affect your Hoho since I think the magic is only slowing you down." Death stated.

Harry tried to forget about his worries and master and apprentice enjoyed the rest of their time together. They spent hours sparing together even though Harry still could never compare to his teacher. Death moved with such amazing poise. His scythe spinning and twirling unpredictable in his hands then lashing in attack unexpectedly

They even went out into the Rukon district where some festival was taking place. There were so many other souls around and Death and Harry were practically treated like royalty wherever they went. Vendors would clamor over themselves asking one of them to try a sample of their food.

As time was growing short Death showed Harry the improvements and repairs he had been able to do to the department of research and development. He had gotten some equipment working that would alert them to any changes in Hueco Mundo. There should be nothing going on in the empty border world, but with the newly repaired devices it should be easy to monitor just in case.

Eventually their time ran out and Harry had to return to the world of the living. Harry was disappointed but he had really found his time in the Soul Society very relaxing. After saying some long goodbyes to Death and Grim he went back to the exit on the plateau. It was Sunday morning when he finally got back to Hogwarts, the senkaimon depositing him exactly where he had opened it last time in the little clearing not too far inside the Forbidden Forest.

The sky was just beginning to lighten as he made his way back to his body, Harry had to wait several minutes before Percy Weasley exited the portrait hole prefect badge gleaming on his chest. Harry slipped inside and got to his body shaking Gigan awake.

"Hey boss." The replacement soul mumbled sleepily

"Did everything go alright when I was gone?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, everything went fine." Gigan answered in a whisper. "I spent all of Saturday in the library and nobody really bothered me. Oh and guess what."

"There was a girl their named Hermione glaring daggers at you." Harry guessed.

"No- well yes but that was not what I was going to tell you." Gigan used Harry's body to role his eyes. "I found the book of all the rules and stuff."

"You did where was it." Asked the Soul Reaper. "How did you find it."

"Simple I asked the Librarian where I could find it." He answered.

Harry smacked his forehead for not thinking of something so simple. Maybe it was just because he was used to only relying only on Death, and himeslf to think about asking someone else for help. "Alright what did it say?"

"I don't know, I didn't read any of it." Gigan answered.

"What?" Harry blurted." Why not?"

"Listen boss that book was huge. I was afraid it would crush me." He said holding his arm out to show how big. "The librarian took me to this corner in the restricted section. She said that it was technically not restricted reading but I had to keep it in the library and read it in front of her because it was so valuable. Well when she said that, I just did not feel like trying to read any of it. Sorry boss."

Harry sighed. "That's alright Gigan, at least you found it. I'll have to check it out tomorrow. Right now I'm getting back in my body, you've done a good job of taking care of it. Maybe I will have to reward you by letting you go to my history class."

"Thanks boss!" The replacement soul smiled, not realizing what he was getting into.

* * *

Sunday passed fairly quickly, it was a nice day so Harry spent most of it walking around outside the grounds with some of his dorm-mates.

That night Harry in his soul form snuck into the Library restricted section. After a little searching Harry found what he was looking for. The book was huge easily four inches thick, the back binding simply had the word Hogwarts on it in shiny green print. Harry carefully pulled the huge book off the shelf, it was covered in rich black leather that did not feel worn or brittle. Looking at the cover he saw the title in the same green letters that said, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry-Self Updating Book of Rules and Records.

Taking the book to a small table just outside of the restricted section. Harry focused his spirit energy and a pale green kido light flashed into existence. The black clad Soul Reaper opened the large book and began to flip through the pages examining the content. After just a little reading he figured out why the book was so huge. There were records dating back to the founding of the school. It had the names of every Headmaster and Headmistress the school ever had. It also gave the dates when they started teaching and when they gained the position. Also giving little details like when they were born and died as well as other little details about them.

The book also contained names and dates of every member of the board of governors, as well as the names and dates of each Head-boy and girl along with which house they came from. Every member of staff was listed from the teaching staff down to the grounds keeper. Since the school had been around for hundreds of years the lists were quite long.

Harry stumbled onto a section that listed every death that had occurred at the school, It listed the names, dates and cause of death for each person. Harry got distracted reading some of them, a lot of the reasons seemed completely normal such as, _heart attack_, or _unknown illness_. Other were certainly not natural causes of death, such as _falling from astronomy tower_, _falling down stairs_, _potion accident_, _poisoned_, or _attacked by creature_. Harry found a group of names that had all died in 1517 each of the names had the same cause of death, _slain in battle_. There was even some deaths that Harry had a hard time not laughing at, _trampled by winged horse_, _drowned while drinking soup_, _infected ingrown toenail_, and _severe ugliness _were some of the best or horrible ways to die listed in the book.

Harry had just found the section of the book dealing with the rules when he felt a tiny sparkle of spirit energy nearby. Looking up Harry was surprised that Nearly Headless Nick was floating barely ten feet away. Harry shook off his shock and cursed himself for not being more aware of his surroundings. Getting to his feet he extinguishing his kido light and grabbing the thick book before flash stepping. Harry could feel the magic slowing him down and was forced to push more spirit energy into the technique. Making it to the restricted section the young Soul Reaper heard the Gryffindor house ghost gasp in shock. After he replaced the book Harry again activated his flash step, getting out of the library.

"_Dang it!_" Harry berated himself. "_There is no way that Nick wouldn't have felt those two burst of spiritual energy_."

The Apprentice of Death was suddenly angry and tired after getting caught and then performing two restricted flash steps. Harry made his way back to his dorm deciding to take his place back in his body and sleeping for the rest of the night.

Monday passed just as fast as Sunday, but Harry was still very cross at himself for his slip up. It did not help anything that he again got angry at himself for letting his emotions show enough that Ron questioned him about it in between one of their classes. He just waved it off saying that he did not get a good sleep.

That night Harry again crept down to the library, he took extra care being stealthy as he went. Stopping at the door the cloaked figure stretched his senses to the limit to feel any spirit inside. He barely felt them but there were four flickers of spirit energy floating around the library. Slowly Harry silently opened the door and snuck in.

Harry heard the low hiss of whispering voices coming from a corner of the library. Catching sight of the four sources of spirit energy, all four house ghosts were floating together. It was strange it was like the ghosts were trying to repress their energy, none of them glowed nearly as brightly as they normally did.

Each of the house ghosts were floating behind the cover of a bookcase looking out observing the rest of the room. If Harry guessed correctly most of the library even the little table he had been at last night would be visible from the location they had chosen. The only problem was that the door he had just entered through could not be seen.

"Are you sure your weren't just imagining it Sir Nick?" The wheezing voice of the Bloody Baron said.

"Don't insult me," Nick hissed back. "I know what I saw. I got a very good look at it before it disappeared."

"Could you explain it again?" The Fat Friar asked. "I'm confused just what happened last night."

"Humph." Nick uttered causing his head to wobble. "Like I already told you, last night I was floating through here when I noticed a light on in here. When I went to investigate thinking it was a misbehaving student I was shocked to see what it really was. Whatever it might have been was sitting at that table over there, it had this little round green light floating just above its hand. It wore a thick black cloak and had a strange sword strapped to its back. I slowly got closer and noticed that it was reading a book."

"What was it reading?" The Grey Lady interrupted.

"That's what I was trying to determine." Answered the Gryffindor ghost. "However before I was able to get close enough it somehow noticed I was there."

"How did it figure out you were near?" Asked the Fat Friar. "Ghosts are known for being silent. Were you breathing too loudly or something?"

"Of course not." Nick scoffed. "It just suddenly whipped around and looked at me."

"I do hope you got at least a glimpse of this thing's face." The Baron groaned.

"Sadly no." He muttered dejectedly. "The hood of the cloak shadowed its face so I couldn't see a thing. But then everything happened so quickly. The light turned off, it grabbed to book and disappeared, with two bursts of whatever we have been feeling these past few weeks."

"Did any other ghost feel what Sir Nick felt last night?" Asked the Ravenclaw ghost. "I know I certainly did not feel anything."

"Actually I was talking to Bad Luck Bartholomew, you know the fellow that tripped down the Headmaster's moving stairs and was stuck falling down them for five hours before someone found him. "The Hufflepuff ghost said the other three nodded there heads, which caused Nick's wobbling precariously. "Anyway he told me that he felt whatever it is again as he was passing by the library last night. So that collaborates Sir Nick's story.""Of course it does." Nick scoffed again. "I know what I saw, now quiet if I'm right that its going to return to the scene of the crime."

"Are we going to wait here all night?" The Grey Lady asked no one in particular.

"Why do you have some pressing engagement you need to get to." The Bloody Baron mocked as She shot and evil look back at him. "I know being dead can keep you so very busy and you can't find time for things such as this."

"Shhh both of you." Hushed The Fat Friar. "It could be here any minute."

Harry waited for a few minutes to see if they were going to say anything else. After a while he crept out of the library knowing that he wasn't going to get a chance to read tonight.

* * *

Harry did not get a chance to read the next night or the night after that. At least one of the ghosts were keeping a vigilant guard on the library each night. The days passed quickly, Classes were alright he actually did 'reward' Gigan to take his place in History of Magic the replacement soul taking notes as he was allowed to wander around the castle for an hour. It was interesting walking around the school in his soul form in the day time. He only had to use flash step twice to avoid detection for as much good it did him each time he flash stepped he alerted whatever ghost he was trying to avoid.

Quidditch practice and studying in the library trying to learn more about the magical world along with lots other things occupied the rest of his time. Before he knew it he had been at Hogwarts for two months

It was Halloween and at charms class they were finally getting taught how to levitate things. Before most of what they had been taught was theory. Pretty boring stuff like how to hold a wand correctly, basic wand movements, they were given a crash course in the basics of Latin.

Flitwick had divided them up into pairs and Harry was partnered with Neville, while Ron was with Hermione much to his chagrin.

"Now make sure you get the nice wrist movement we practiced, and remember to enunciate." The short charms teacher said from atop of a stack of books.

Harry looked down at his feather, and focused hard on what he desired of his magic. With a swish and flick of his wand Harry uttered, "Wingardium Leviosa."

It felt so easy as the little feather started floating upwards. "Wow Harry!" Neville said. "Did you just get it on your first try?"

Harry nodded. Just as Professor Flitwick spoke up. "Oh most excellent Mr. Potter. Five points to Gryffindor."

Harry released control of his magic and let the feather float back down to the desk. Looking around he saw that several people not just Hermione were shooting him jealous looks.

"Very good job." Flitwick said as he hopped down from his pedestal of books, grabbing one as he headed towards Harry. "I think you should try something a bit harder."

The charms teacher set a decent sized book in front of him with a 'whump.' "See if you can levitate that Mr. Potter, don't worry if you can't. Maybe you could help your partner with the spell."

Harry spent the rest of the class trying to make the book float as well as trying to help Neville. He explained to Neville to concentrate hard on the spell and not to get distracted if it started to work. The book was a lot harder than the feather. Although he did have some success. The book shook then only the cover would lift up. The best he got was getting the book to rise three inches off the desk before he was distracted by Neville causing the book to fall back to earth.

"I got it! I got it!" Neville cried with joy as the feather floated upward, but then the feather shook in the air and caught fire.

By the end of class several of the students had succeeded in levitating the feather above their head, but most of them did not get that much success.

Ron was in a bad mood as they left, the best he had gotten was causing the feather to jump around at eye level before falling back down. It seemed that Hermione's bossy coaching really did not help anything either. Her success with the spell seemed to make his attempts worse.

"You're saying it wrong." Ron said in a mocking voice to sound like Hermione. "It's Win-gar-dium. I tell you she's a nightmare. No wonder she doesn't have any friends."

Hermione suddenly brushed passed him her faced stressed and her eyes watering. Seeing this Harry elbowed Ron in the ribs. "I think she heard you."

Ron look slightly uncomfortable before he hunched up his shoulders. "So what, it's the truth."

Hermione was not at the Halloween feast that night, Parvati was heard gossiping that Hermione was crying in the bathroom. She definitely was not Harry's favorite person, and it almost seemed like she hated him. But he felt bad that Hermione was missing the feast because of some childish words.

Harry's thoughts were interrupted when Quirrell came sprinting into the great hall his turban slightly askew.

"Troll! In the dungeons! Just thought you ought to know." He was able to articulate before he fainted right in front of the head table.

While everyone started yelling and then Dumbledore regained order; Directing everyone back to their dorms, Harry could only think. "_That might be the longest he has gone without stuttering_."

Percy was leading the Gryffindor first years back upstairs, Harry meandered around the back of the group then suddenly stepping to the side getting into cover as the rest of his year mates continued on. Reaching into his pocket Harry extracted an inkwell that he kept on him, but was soon distracted.

Harry looked up hearing the scrape of shoes, Ron Weasley had come back and found him.

"What are you doing?" Ron asked in a whisper.

"I'm going to look for Hermione, she doesn't know about the troll."

A thoughtful look appeared on Ron's face before he spoke again. "Alright then, I'll help you. Come on."

"Where are you going?" Harry hissed up at the red head.

"I thought we were going to find Hermione." Ron stated, a confused tone in his voice.

"All we know is that Hermione is in a girl's bathroom. Do you know how many girl's bathrooms are in this castle?" Harry asked rhetorically. "There's a lot, so I am going to find her before I rush of with no idea where I'm going. Now be quiet so I can set this up."

Harry unscrewed the top of the inkwell and dipping his finger into it. Pulling his now black finger out he started to draw a circle on the stone floor and divided it by four with a cross, each section having a different symbol inside it.

"Hearts of the south and eye of the north. Fingers of the west and heel of the east. Gather together the wind, and scatter the rain. Bakudo fifty eight. Kakushitsuijaku." Harry recited the spirit chant before placing his palms on the ground.

"Whoa!" Ron said in awe as the circle lit up, symbols flashing by that he did not understand.

Harry's gaze was intent on his kido as he shifted his search around the castle. "_What are Snape and Quirrel doing near the third floor corridor I though the troll was in the dungeons_?" He thought as he continued his search.

Harry then found that the troll was definitely not in the dungeons. The beast was not very far away, it was just wandering around in a neglected corner of the first floor. All that was around that area was some unused class rooms and a girl's bathroom.

Harry's face paled as he shifted his search slightly and there he found Hermione alone in that bathroom. The troll was very close to her, "We have to go now!" Harry commanded, getting to his feet and dashing to his female classmates location.

Ron surprisingly kept up but his breathing quickly became rapid as they ran up a flight of stairs. "_I hope the troll just passes her by I'm not sure we will make it in time._"

As they neared the location they both heard a high terrified scream. "Hermione!" Ron gasped, as they quickened their pace. Harry shoved the door open an saw Hermione curled into the corner of the bathroom, the troll slowly advancing on her. The brutes club was dragging along the ground knocking the porcelain sinks off the wall as it walked forward.

"What do we do?" Ron asked frantically, gaining the attention of the troll as it turned to face the young pair of boys.

Harry took action, pointing his finger up at the troll's face. "Hado number four! Byakurai!" A stream of white light shot from Harry's finger hitting the troll's left eye and continuing through the back of its head stopping at the wall behind it. The beast fell to the side with a deep groan, crashing into the wall and shattering a sink.

"Whoa." Ron said a look of awe on his face. "Harry that was bloody wicked, did you just shoot a bolt of lighting from your finger?"

Harry left Ron in the door way and kneeled beside Hermione. The girl was shaking her face pale as she sat there on the ground. Her mouth was agape in horror as he grabbed her shoulder and shook her gently.

"Hermione." Harry said calmly.

Hermione's eyes gained focus as she pushed herself away from the corner a bit. Looking around a bit she asked quietly. "What is that thing?" looking at the downed troll.

"It's a troll that somehow got into the castle. Professor Quirrell came running into the Great Hall yelling that it was in the dungeons." Harry answered.

"What's it doing here then?" She asked another question, her voice slowly gaining a more natural tone.

"I don't know." Harry shrugged. "Come on Hermione, we need to-"

Harry's words were cut off as he heard the troll groan and shift only a few feet away from him.

"Get up!" He commanded Hermione yanking her to her feet, and shoving her towards Ron in the doorway. "Just run, I will take care of this."

"But Harry!" Ron interjected, as the troll got to a kneeling positing shards of porcelain tinkling on the ground.

Harry backed slowly to the door trying to think of his options. The Soul Reaper was still amazed that the thing was still alive with a hole clear though its head. A Bakudo? He thought, but was unsure if it would work having never used a binding spell on something so big before. He had to keep in mind that he would have to use a fairly low powered spell or else the ghosts around the school would feel his spirit pressure. He was already pushing it as was with dropping the spirit chant for hado number four.

The young Soul Reaper's thoughts were interrupted when one of the trolls knobby hands traveled up to its' face. It suddenly yelled out a terrifying squealing screech, as it found the hole where its eye had been.

"Just go, get help!" Harry yelled at this two fellow Gryffindors, as the troll got up with unexpected speed. It spun around the club in its' hand swung out wildly smashing thorough the wooden stall dividers and turning them to kindling.

Harry got to the door frame after Ron and Hermione had vacated the area, and planted his feet. The troll was stumbling around swinging the giant club around shattering mirrors and sinks.

"Hado Number four! Byakurai! Harry called again, the white beam of light blasting out from his extended finger. The energy hit the troll somewhere in the torso but the beast did not even flinch as it swung its club at him. Harry ducked just in time as the weapon hit the door frame above him sending bits of stone shards raining down.

Harry backed out of the bathroom a quick plan formed in his head. He needed a more powerful kido spell to do anything to the troll, but if he did not contain his spirit pressure the ghosts of the castle would surely feel it. The ghosts were already on guard and it would not take much to connect the events of when they felt a burst of spirit energy and Harry Potter blasting a troll with his 'mysterious magic' happening at the same time. If he used a spirit chant he should be able to control his spirit pressure enough so that the ghosts wouldn't feel anything. If that did not work then he would have to choose self preservation over secrecy and blast the creature with everything he had.

The troll had stumbled out of the bathroom and into the wall across the door as Harry began his chant.

"Ruler, mask of flesh and blood, all things in the universe fly. Ye which names all in nature. Gathering of heat and chaos. Beyond the seas reverse, and march on to the south!" Harry finished his chant, extending his palm he took aim.

* * *

Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall were posted at the top of the stairs leading down to the dungeons, Both stood guard to make sure that the troll did not get back upstairs and get into the Great Hall where the Slytherin students waited until the situation was corrected. The Headmaster sent Professors Flitwick Kettleburn and Sprout down to deal with beast. The three of them were more than enough to handle one troll. He had wanted to send Professor Quirrell, but as expected the man had conveniently disappeared. His suspicions were basically confirmed that somehow the epileptic man was working with Voldemort. The fact alone that he was able to get a troll into the castle without the wards alerting him was very impressive.

Albus was distracted from his thoughts when a deep thump came from above them. His eyes shifted up to the ceiling then over to the headmistress, as both of them headed towards the staircase much faster then you would expect from their aged bodies. They started running as crashing sounds reached their ears, all sense of dignity lost, Snape and Quirrell joined them from a side passage as they ran towards the noises.

The group of four passed by Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, they barely slowed down as Mr. Weasley yelled and pointed in the direction they were heading. "Professors! You gotta help Harry and the troll are up there!"

Dumbledore was just beginning to think of possibilities of what might be happening with Harry when another loud crash and the sound of Harry Potter's voice filtered around a corner just up ahead. The teachers were just about to round the corner when they clearly heard Harry's voice yell out.

"Hado number thirty one! Shakkaho!" There was a flash of red light and a sound of an explosion before the troll they were looking for came flying passed the corner and slam into the wall just feet from where they were. The four teachers looked down in amazement seeing that something had blasted a size-able portion of the troll's chest away. The attack had cauterized most of the wound leaving trails of smoke rising up from the corpse. Each of them slowly turned their heads and looked around the corner seeing Harry Potter standing there his palm still extended.

XXXXXXXXX

(Author Notes) Woot! Review if you love violence. Its one of those things that if it's not fixing your problems, your simply not using enough of it. Anyway I'm done being morbid for now. Very fun chapter to write hope you enjoyed it too.

Bakudo 58 kakushitsuijaku (Translated. Way of binding, Summoning of Tracking Sparrows.)

Hado 4 byakurai (Translated. Way of destruction, Pale Lightning )

Hado 32 Shakkaho (Translated. Way of destruction, Red Flame Cannon.)


	14. Rule Breaking and Rule Reading

(Author Notes) Several things were pointed out to me by some reviewers, if those people read this they should know who they are. In canon either the school staff were being very stupid or the book just has some holes that showed up after Rowling wrote some more.

One reader pointed out that by sending the students to their dorms they put half the student population at risk. Slytherin and Hufflpuff dorms are both bellow ground, one could guess "in the dungeons!" as Quirrell said. I have written in my story that only Slytherin house was kept back in the Great Hall for their safety. If you want to ask why not Hufflepuff as well I will answer, that in my imagination Hufflepuff dorms are in a different part of the underground that is not really considered 'the dungeons.' After all in the books you never hear anything about the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs coming up from their dorms in the dungeons, but you hear it quite a bit of just the Slytherins emerging from the dungeons. So in my imagination and for my story there Hufflepuffs have a different entrance to their dorms that is not located near the stairs to the dungeons by the entrance hall.

Also in canon right after the troll is taken down, Hermione comes up with some excuse that just seems odd once you read it again. Hermione was not even in the Great Hall when Quirrell ran in screaming about the troll. After the troll was taken down in canon via wand up the nose and club on the head. The teacher are angry that three first years took on a mountain troll. Hermione quickly comes up with a story where she went to take on the troll and Harry and Ron came to save her.

That just seems odd to me, because just minutes before she was a shivering mess. I don't know it really does not matter, so back to the story.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry was sitting back in his bed reading a book about the Wizarding perspective of World War Two. The reason he was up in his dorm was because he was attempting to enjoy some privacy after what he just been through.

Almost the instant the teachers had regained their composure they descended on him like an odd pack of wolves. Professor Snape started demanding his immediate expulsion claiming he had endangered the entire school. Professor Quirrell quickly became a quivering mess leaning against a wall for support as he nervously eyed the dead troll and then Harry. Professor McGonagall started demand answers to what had happened and then without any explanation started scolding him for his recklessness. The entire time this was going on Professor Dumbledore hung back like a third party observer.

Luckily (or unluckily depending on how you looked at it) Ron and Hermione had returned from where ever they had run off to and helped explain what had happened. Although Ron was not much help as he stood there his mouth agape as he looked down at the troll's corpse.

"Please Professor none of this is Harry's fault!" Hermione interrupted McGonagall's rant about the idiocy of a first year taking on a mountain troll.

The four teachers turn looking at the other pair of students as if they had just noticed that the had arrived.

"Are you suggesting Miss Granger, that THAT is not any of Mr. Potter's doing?" Snape droned, pointing down at the troll which still had bits of smoke rising from it.

The bushy haired girl turned slightly green as she got a good look at the carnage inflicted to the beast. "I-I didn't see Harry do that so I can't say but he was here to help me. If he hadn't been here I would most likely have been killed."

"Why were any of you here? McGonagall asked heatedly. "You should all be in your dorms, after we sent you there during the feast."

"I wasn't at the feast, I was here in the bathroom." Hermione answered.

"I know women are notorious for spending too much time in the loo but for the entire feast is pushing it." Snape said skeptically

Harry could almost see the gears working in her head before she answered. "If you must know I was in there crying, Because- um. I have been feeling homesick recently." She lied, her red face looking down at the ground after glancing at Ron."

"That's alright Miss Granger." McGonagall said her voice taking a slightly more maternal tone. "That still does not explain why you two gentlemen are out of your dorms."

"But we just said that Hermione might have died if Harry and me hadn't been here." Ron said, finally taking his eyes off the troll.

"I know that rushing into danger without thinking is a Gryffindor trait, but finding lost students and troll slaying is not in your job description." The potions teacher moaned.

"He didn't kill the troll, I did." Harry said smoothly, making everyone turn to look at him. "Just how did you defeat the troll Harry?" Professor Dumbledore finally spoke up.

The all encompassing answer of, "Magic" was taken just as well as expected and Snape looked like he was about to start yelling some more when The Headmaster spoke again.

"Well everyone seems to be alright here and that's all that matters. This was just an unfortunate situation that could have been disastrous if it hadn't been for Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley." Dumbledore said his eyes twinkling down at each boy. "So twenty points for your actions tonight. Now back to your dorms, I am sure this excitement has been as tiring for you as it has for me."

What the Headmaster had said was not true because Ron was babbling the entire way up to the tower saying how amazing what he had done to the troll was. He begged Harry to teach him to shoot lighting bolts from his fingers. As soon they had entered the common room they were bombarded with question as to where they had been, and of course Ron had started excitedly telling everyone that would listen what had happened. While Harry had retreated to the dorms.

Harry tried his best to ignore the noises coming from down stairs. Seamus and Dean had both already been up looking for him asking him to come down and tell his side of the story. The young Soul Reaper had shooed them away saying that he was tired because it wasn't easy shooting lighting bolts. He hoped that by giving them a little lie it would content them to leaving him alone for the rest of the night.

Harry took a deep breath contemplating just how the school would react. Judging from other incidents that had already happened Harry wouldn't get a moments peace unless something happened that would distract everyone.

Eventually lights out was called and Harry in Soul Reaper form crept out of the Gryffindor tower. Because of the recent events he had developed a certain need, and in interest of his own mental health he needed to find Peeves. Following the poltergeist's particular spiritual energy Harry found the little spirit on the fourth floor turning all the portraits upside-down.

"Peeves." Harry hissed, just as woman in a picture was protesting loudly about his actions.

"Who's there?" Peeves demanded as he whipped around. "Oh, hi there Soul Reaper. Heard you got in a fist fight with a troll, how did that go?"

Harry rolled his eyes realizing that what he feared had already begun. "Listen I'm not here to chat. I uh- I feel an uncontrollable desire to create some chaos and I need some help."

"I knew this day would come." Peeves said, as he reclined in midair his arms crossed and a smug smile on his face. "I knew eventually you would see that your powers could be put to much better use than they are now. I was waiting for this day now you and I can bring this school to its knees!"

Harry frowned. "That might be a problem, I'm not going to use any of my powers, don't want any chance of anyone making any connections with my 'mysterious magic' and whatever we plan to do."

It was Peeves turn to frown. "That will make it harder, just how much chaos are you wanting to create?"

"Enough so that it will distract the school from my troll troubles."

"Hmmm," The small spirit mused. "That might be difficult. Were not talking one or two pranks during meals. This will have to be a day of interruptions and disturbances preferably happening through-out the day. We have some work to do."

The rest of the night Peeves and Harry spent planning and gathering supplies. They raided broom closets for whatever useful items they had, which sadly wasn't much but it was enough to give them a few ideas.

"If you won't use your powers will you at least use magic?" Peeves asked as they made plans

"As long as it can't be traced back to me its alright." Harry said. "The problem is that I really don't know that much magic yet."

"Ah, I got it." Peeves said, snapping his fingers after thinking for a bit. "There are some potions a first year should be able to brew, and if they are used correctly they will do wonders. I think I know the book that has the instructions."

A little bit later Peeves swooped into the library. Tonight The Fat Friar was on watch in case the mysterious black cloaked thing showed up.

"HEHEHE." Peeves cackled buzzing by the Hufflepuff ghost. "What are you doing here Fatty? Catching up on some reading are you? Good luck turning those pages! HAHAHA"

"Please go away Peeves." The Fat Friar said trying to be polite. He always thought that Peeves had always been misbehaving because he was scorned by the rest of the ghosts. "I'm doing something that could be very important, now please leave I will explain it later if you like."

"Oh I see, just trying to get rid of me. Old Peevesy will just mess thing up, right? Can't have him interrupting your important work! Fine I'll go, see if I ever want to talk to you again!" Peeves yelled flying out of the library the way he came.

The Fat Friar sighed and shook his head as the poltergeist left. He never noticed that the thing he was waiting for had entered the library and already left taking a book titled Household Potions with it.

* * *

The next day was not as bad as Harry had expected it to be, it was worse. The day started out fine. Hermione and Ron followed him down to breakfast, which was alright because Ron had stopped pestering him to tell more about his powers and Hermione was quiet till she worked up her courage.

"Hey Harry." Hermione started. "I didn't get a chance to last night, so thank you for saving me. I know you didn't have to come find me and put yourself in danger, and I know that I haven't been the nicest person towards you since I met you. So I'm sorry, I was just wondering if we could be friends."

"Sure Hermione." Harry said, hoping he would not regret his decision. "You're really smart, but you know you don't have to focus everything you have into studying, and you don't have to be the best either."

"I-I know that." Hermione said with a mixed tone of embarrassment and reservation.

The day started getting bad when once again Harry walked into the Great Hall and silenced all communication when everyone looked at him. Anyone that did not know by morning found out at least by breakfast. After that is just went downhill. Once the first class of the day finished everyone knew he could shoot lightning from his fingers. People really started seeking him out to ask questions of him. Some older students basically demanded that he teach then how to perform his sort of magic, he was not intimidated by their age and brushed them off. A brainy Ravenclaw girl tracked him down and politely asked him to explain how his spell worked. Whether the ability to guide the lightning was built into the spell or if he had to concentrate and guide it where he wanted it to hit.

By the end of the day's second class the story was that he had not just killed the troll but had blasted it in half. Which he guessed he could see how the truth could be stretched like that. However by the end of the third class the story grew that it hadn't just been one troll but three, and each one of them had been blown in to chunks no bigger than a bludger.

Harry reached his limit at lunch. He was simply trying to eat, but that was nearly impossible because he was surrounded on all sides by other students. They were squeezing in on either side of him and scrunched up across the table. There were even people gathering behind him making escape impossible. It seemed that people had figured out that he was not answering people that demanded answers. So they were all just whispering among themselves as if waiting on him.

When Harry tired to get some more water the pitcher was grabbed before he could reach it.

"Let me get that for you Harry." Seamus said, reaching across Fred Weasley and an older Ravenclaw boy to fill up his goblet.

Harry moaned as Seamus spilled some water onto his plate as he finished poring. "Will you guys give me some space if I answer some questions?" Harry asked exasperatedly.

That opened the flood gates and everyone in the group started to talk at once each wanting their question answered, until one voice reached above the others.

"Is it true you can shoot lightning from your fingers?" Someone asked.

"No." Harry sighed. "It just looks like lightning, it still can do a lot of harm though."

"I heard something about finding the troll with a special circle cut into four parts, was that a modified tracking charm or some sort of divination spell."

"Neither." He said, giving a short answer.

"Yeah what was that Harry?" Ron asked from across the table. "You did that little drawing and said some weird stuff something about fingers of the west and rain. Then you said Backudoo fifty something, before it lit up."

Harry thought for second considering how much he should say before answering. "That was the incantation chant. I have to say the incantation before it works." He answered with a partial truth.

"But you didn't use any sort of incantation chant when you blasted Malfoy with Had-Oh number one a while back." Someone said from the group behind him.

"Hado," Harry corrected. "And no I didn't, I am skilled enough that I can drop the incantation for some of my spells."

"Hado, that means way of destruction in Japanese, right?" Hermione asked from across the table with Ron. Obviously she had been doing her homework and their new friendship did not diminish her need for answers. So he simply answered with a nod.

"Wicked." Fred Weasley said form beside him. "Alright Harry since we all know how much you appreciate your space, just answer three quick questions for me and then I promise my brother and I the Invaluable Weasley twins will clear out these leaches for you."

This caused a stir amoung the rest of the group. "I haven't got to ask a question yet." Someone said

"Listen you lot, the deal was some answers for some space." George said from Harry's left. "He's already done that so you unless you want purple hair for a week you'd better do as the man says."

The group seemed to agree even if it was with a disappointed murmur. "More like Immature Weasley Twins." Someone muttered from within the group.

"Hey hey now." Fred said. "First of all, growing old is mandatory growing up is optional. And second, get your spectacular I-N adjectives right. Alright Harry three easy questions good for you?"

"If I can get some breathing room its alright." Harry said.

"Ok so Hado number one and Hado number four, the one that looks like lightning are both in same group of spells right?" Fred asked.

Harry raised his eye brows suspecting a trick because of such an easy question. "Yes."

"So what number of spell was the one you used to blast the troll in half with. We heard that the teachers heard it but we can't get them to tell."

"That was Hado thirty-one." Harry said still suspecting something because they had not asked anything he really needed to keep secret.

"Last question and like I said an easy one." Fred said. "How high do the numbers go up to?"

Harry was a bit surprised that it wasn't something he would not want to answer, but that was something he saw no problem with having other people know about. "It goes up to Hado Ninety-nine."

"Ohhh," George said with a disappointed moan. "Should have held out for one more question. If number one shoves people about, four shoots lightning, and thirty-one blasts a notoriously magic resistant mountain troll in half what does number ninety-nine do?"

Apparently the rest of the group agreed with George's curiosity and everyone started asking questions again. However both of the Weasley Twins made good on their agreement and started shooing the crowd away. "We had a deal, Now back up and return to your tables." Fred directed.

"Yeah, no need to be start angering the powerful little firsty. Wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of a Hado thirty-one would you." George said.

Even with The Twins help once lunch had ended it was still pretty bad as people came up to him to ask questions. Apparently the information he had given had rapidly spread around the school and people started coming up to him with increasingly bigger bribes for him to tell what the incantation chant was for just Hado number one. The most unexpected thing that happened was a fourth year Ravenclaw girl beg him on hands and knees to please share his knowledge to the rest of the school. "Knowledge was a gift to be shared, not kept secret." She said, with what he hoped was faked tears in her eyes.

Dinner was starting to look as bad as lunch but before it got too bad McGonagall came by and cleared other students away.

"Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley the Headmaster wants to see you in his office when you are done eating. So come and get me when you are ready and I will take you too him." She said after the other students went back to their tables.

"Why would the Headmaster want to see up do you think we're in trouble." Hermione asked in a panicked voice.

"Naw," Ron said as he finished a bite of food. "He probably just wants to see if we're alright from the troll yesterday. Dumbledore is just like that."

"If he only wants that then why isn't Harry coming to." She asked, to which Ron just shrugged.

Harry had a sneaking suspicion that it was more than just wanting to check up one them, and it was almost assuredly something to do with him. However he simply resigned himself to asking them later.

After dinner without Ron and Hermione tagging along he was able to ditch any pursuit by some evasive tactics and knowledge of the castle's secret passages. Heading up to Gryffindor Tower, hew was lucky that there were only a couple of Seven Year girls in a corner reading some books. Getting into his dorm Harry went to his trunk pulling out a cauldron and potion supplies he would need for everything that had been planned for tomorrow.

"Agrona." Harry called over to the raven who had just been taking a nap on her perch. Agrona's head popped up and she ruffled her feathers before flying over and landing on her master's shoulder.

"Sorry to wake you but I have need of your talents. I need to guard this door and make sure nobody gets in. Feel free to be as forbidding as possible and only peck out their eyes as a last resort." Harry instructed his familiar gesturing at the bathroom door.

Harry went the bathroom and set up the cauldron before coming back out and writing a message in case any of his dorm-mates came in. **Warning!** _Had a bad day, wanting to be left alone for a while. Guard raven on patrol, will peck out eyes if provoked_.

After sticking the message to the door he returned to the bathroom and popped a Soul Candy. "Hey Boss." Gigan said, taking over control of his body.

"Alright I need you to make some potions. It should be fairly easy, not too much more different than cooking for the Dursleys. Just follow the directions exactly, if it says five clockwise stirs it means it." The Soul Reaper said, handing his replacement soul the potions book.

"I need two batches of this and four batches of this one." Harry instructed pointing at the instructions for the Gluing Goop and Ever-freeze potion. "When you're done just hide them away in my trunk.""Alright boss." Gigan said excitedly.

Locking the bathroom door as he exited, and Agrona gave a low call as he passed by. Harry looked at the raven and put a finger to his lips before waving goodbye to the black bird. He had discovered months ago that his familiar could see him but not hear him when he was in soul form. It was strange but it didn't cause any problems because for some reason the bird seemed to instinctively know what he wanted.

Heading downstairs he slinked out of the portrait hole. "Ohh. Something must be wrong with my hinges. I keep opening accidentally, and you didn't even give the password yet." The Fat Lady huffed, speaking to a couple of fifth years that were headed into the dorm. Harry passed by the pair as the boy was saying something about having to get it fixed.

"Alice." The boy called. "What are you waiting for?"

"Oh Sorry." The Alice girl replied. "I just thought I saw something, never mind."

Peeves was waiting for him in a abandoned classroom on the fourth floor, where they had stashed all of their supplies.

"I thought you were going to be making the potions we needed." The poltergeist said.

"I am." Harry answered.

"Then how are you here at the same time? Got the potions brewing under that cloak of yours." Peeves snickered at his own joke.

"No, my body is working on them up in the dorms."

"You can do that?"

"I'm a Soul Reaper, of course I can." Harry answer the other spirit, his voice only slightly smug.

"Alright we have a lot of work to do and sadly we can't do most of it until after curfew." Peeves said, rubbing his hands together.

They did all the normal tricks first, after raiding supply cupboards they had found a long section of twine. It was small enough to go unnoticed but strong enough to get the job done. After some careful tying they had rigged a system that would cause every suit of armor in two hallways to fall over at the same time.

"Good for now but it won't distract people for long. It'll be enough for a loud noise that might distract from classes but the armor will just pick itself back up after a few minutes.""I thought the armor could move, never actually see them do it." Harry said.

"Yeah they try to be sneaky about it, but I push them over all the time. There's a suit of armor that I pick on all the time, I call him Hubert. He's become wary of me and grabs the wall so I can't push him over whenever I fly by." Peeves said with a sadistic giggle.

The pair of paranormal pranksters took a leaf out of the Weasley Twins book, but took it a step further. Instead of replacing the instructions on the special doors around the castle, the two of them replaced the doors themselves. Every special door that wasn't a teacher's door was switched with another door that required you to give a password or some other action. It was very fortuitous that almost all the doors at the school had the same size doorframe.

"Hehehe, Compatibility and order corrupted for the use of creating chaos." Peeves chirped as he tapped the hinge pin out of a door.

Next they moved on a little room that Filch the Caretaker stored most of his confiscated items taken from students.

"Are you sure we should do this?" Harry asked, standing in front a door with four separate locks on it.

"Yes. Soul Reaper." Peeves hissed. "Since you won't use your powers and any magic you could do would be easily countered by a teacher we need ammunition."

"Ok I can see that, but you're the one that is going to be using all of this stuff. The staff is going to get really angry at you." Harry said, trying to pause and think cautiously.

"You worry too much Soul Reaper. What are they going to do kill me? I have seen the treasure inside its just this door that keeps me from taking anything out, and Old Filth has it locked down tight. Now stop stalling and blast this door down or something. They will just fix it later with magic anyway."

Harry sighed and unsheathed his Zanpakuto. With a few quick slices he cut around each lock easily.

"Wow that's some sword." The poltergeist said with a low whistle.

"Its made to be able to slice souls apart, wood isn't any problem." Harry smirked as Peeves paled slightly.

After they gained entry Peeves started giggling and rolling around in the assorted confiscated items.

"Ohhhh!" Peeves said in awe holding up a jar of what looked like smoke. "I didn't know Old Filth had some of this stuff in here. They stopped making this after the guy that made it went bankrupt. I think he's dead now so this might be some of the last of this there is. Oh and there is three jars we might be able to fill the entire school."

Harry went to examine what he had found. _Goofy Gary's fog bank in a jar_.

"This stuff is great, come on grab some stuff we need to move. They quickly transported a large amount of dung bombs, Dr. Filibusters Fabulous Wet-Start No-Heat Fireworks, and other banned items to different stashes around the school. The plan was that separating them around the school Peeves could move quickly around the school cause some havoc in one location and then move on to the next without being weighed down.

* * *

Their business finished Harry went back to the dorms and took control of his body. His dorm mates were just starting to awaken. Going over to his trunk Harry was pleased to find the four glass bottles and two tin jars he had given to Gigan were filled with the correct concoctions. The four bottles were filled with a dark blue liquid that sparkled slightly, and the tin jars had a foul smelling tan goo inside. Putting the six containers into his bag Harry headed down to meet Peeves. Doing his best to avoid others Harry slipped into one of the many unused rooms in castle. The poltergeist was waiting for him inside practically shivering from excitement.

"Oh they're perfect." Peeves said nearly in tears as he practically cradled the containers when Harry handed each of them to him.

"Alright the first stage has already begun." Harry said. "Give me at least ten minutes before you come down with the Gluing Goop."

"I know, disturbing the peace is what I do here at Hogwarts. This is too good to mess up. Just go and play innocent little firsty, and I'll take care of the rest." Peeves said, bouncing in the air as Harry left for breakfast.

Even though he took the scenic route to the Great Hall He was still among the first students trickling in to breakfast. Taking a seat beside Fred and George Weasley he started placing food on his plate. The young Gryffindor was pleased that he had enough elbow room to move and there were no signs of any mobs forming around him.

"Why bless my soul Gred" George said. "The school's passages suddenly go all confusing and Harry Potter man of mystery still manages to have no problems getting to breakfast.""I see your point Forge. Was this simply another stroke of luck? Did Harry get secret information on the castle? Or was it another trick of his 'mysterious magic?'" Fred said finishing in a whisper.

Harry turned to the twins and smiled. "Just lucky I guess."

"Yes but is it just blind stupid luck-?"

"Or have you started to make your own?" The chimed together.

Harry just shrugged and continued eating. More and more students started to filter in. Ron made it down with Seamus and Dean as the took seats near Harry. Fred gave his younger brother another tearful greeting saying he was once again very happy to see him make it to breakfast alive.

"Not my fault, we got stuck a line to get through a door that asked for a password. It took five minutes for the first people to figure out that the password was everyone's favorite color." Ron said.

"Oh yeah." George mused. "We saw that group forming so we went another way."

"What other way?" Dean asked.

"Sorry trade secret." Fred replied. "I want to shake the hand of whoever did it though. Whoever can replace a door and get away with it, is someone I need to keep an eye one."

"No, I heard that lots of doors around the school have been replaced." Seamus said. "Its causing loads of confusion around the school even the teachers are having a harder time."

"Now that I think about it George isn't the door that is for the old armory?" Fred thought out loud.

"Oh year it probably is, the school is going to have a problem on Sunday." George smiled. "Probably going to have a problem on Friday and Saturday too."

"The school has an armory?" Ron asked with a bit of wonder in his voice. "And why would that door be a problem on Sunday?"

George smiled before answering. "Yes the school had an armory but all the weapons were taken out years ago, but the armory door is still there. Well at least used to be there until whoever moved it this morning. Anyway the door asks for passwords on Monday thru Thursday. On Monday an Tuesday the password is whatever your name is. On Wednesday and Thursday its your favorite color. However on Friday and Saturday the door asks you questions. Sometimes its and easy question like, how much does a pound of flour weigh. Other times its right hard, asking what is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow. Although on Sunday the door just says 'No fighting on Sundays,' and it wont open at all."

Seamus groaned. "Hopefully they will put the door back before too long.

Professor Snape made his way into the Great Hall looking annoyed as his robes billowed behind him. Suddenly all conversation stopped as a loud cackling filled the room. Everyone turned to look as Peeves zipped into the room and hit the back of Snape's legs with some sort of slime. Everyone looked in shock as Peeves started doing barrel rolls in the air.

The potions professor almost fell over when he tried to move his feet but found them immovably stuck to the floor. Snape bristled and tugged on his robes before looking up at the little spirit as he laughed spinning in the air.

"Mark my words, I will find a way to make you regret what you have done." Snape said calmly, his voice filled with contempt.

Peeves response was to blow a loud raspberry. "I have only begun to fight! Fear my power as I rain fire from on high." He said throwing little brown balls at the ground around Snape. Once they hit a foot high pillar of fire flared up for a few seconds before dieing.

"No way." The Weasley Twins said simultaneously, as Peeves swooped out of the hall.

"How did he get some of Goofy Gary's fake fire starters? You can't buy those anymore." George said.

"What are those?" Dean asked.

"Those little beauties were made just as a joke to frighten people, they don't have any heat but look great. Goofy Gary had to sell his patent to Dr. Filibuster who now uses the same idea for his fireworks." Fred answered.

"Peeves isn't allowed in the Great Hall." Professor McGonagall huffed as she pulled out her wand. "Let me help you, out of whatever that is"

She was cut off when Snape interrupted her. "Put that away Headmistress it wont help. The flying fanatic seems to have know what he was doing. it's a potion that instantly adheres to anything not made of metal."

"Isn't there something we can do Severus?" She asked.

"Besides scraping myself out with some metal tool or leaving my shoes and parts of my clothing where they are. I could make a potion that can counter its affects." He said, his voice dripping with disdain. "However since they are protected by The Ministry for being Intelligent Beasts, I don't have any mermaid scales in my stores. The only other option is boiling water and I would prefer not to have to pour that over my feet."

"Oh dear." Was all McGonagall said.

It turned out that no one saw just what Snape did to get unstuck someone got him a chair and he stubbornly stayed there until it was time to leave for first class. Although someone did say that they saw a pair of shoes still stuck to the floor without Snape wearing them.

Everyone seemed be having trouble moving around the school students had gotten used to the strange doors that it hardly slowed them down anymore, but with the changes the school was once again confusing to navigate.

The next phase of the plan started when the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors had charms together. They were being taught Lumos the wand light charm when a prefect interrupted them.

"Sorry to interrupt you professor, but someone has frozen all of the water in a few bathrooms. The toilets and sinks are all filled with ice and we can't figure out how to thaw it. Could you please help?" The prefect pleaded.

Harry smiled internally as Flitwick went off to help telling them to be good till he got back. Everyone started talking about who could be doing this. The majority agreed that Peeves couldn't have done it by himself, which was strange because the poltergeist would sooner prank you than co-operate.

However that wasn't true with Harry, they had targeted four commonly used bathrooms around the school and planned to use the Ever-freeze potion on them. The Ever-freeze potion would like its name said freeze any water for around two days if left out in room temperature. The only stipulation was that the water had to be pure enough to drink so trying to freeze a lake with the potion would not work. It was often used in Wizarding iceboxes, because when used in them it would last longer and be more dependable than the Freezing Charm. It was very convenient because the potion to water ration was fairly low. However the best thing for the prank was it could not be magic-ed away, you had to brew a counter potion to thaw any ice formed by it.

As the day continued more and more chaos gripped the school, and Harry was not completely protected from it having to have to dodge out of the way for a rouge Fanged Frisbee that came snarling by. People were talking about a massive amount of dung bombs set off in the dungeons that was so bad it made your eyes water.

Later Professor Quirrell was doing an extra bad job at teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts today. His stuttering had been taken to a new extreme as noise filtered in from outside the door. It seemed Peeves was now working his way through some of the fireworks. With each bang Quirrell twitched and lost track of his lecture, making the teaching even worse than normal. Suddenly there was a very loud crashing sound and Professor Quirrell went diving for cover behind his desk. Peeves laughter was heard as he zoomed down the hallway and out of earshot.

"S-s-s-some one w-w-want t-to s-s-s-see w-what th-that was?" Quirrell stuttered, barely making himself understandable.

Everyone sat there for a few seconds until Harry volunteered to check it out, even though he already knew what had happened. Just as expected all the suits of armor along the hall were lying on the ground. He had to suppress a laugh as he saw one moving. It was comically patting the ground around itself looking for it's helmet that had rolled several feet away.

Harry almost sighed in relief at lunch, no one was paying attention to him or following him around demanding answers to his 'mysterious magic.' Everyone was telling stories about the antics of the Peeves The Poltergeist. Students were swapping stories about having to run for their lives as the were chased around by a cackling spirit.

"Did you hear?" Harry overheard one Ravenclaw say. "Peeves nicked all this stuff from Filch, it was from his where he kept all the confiscated things he had. There were years of banned items in there. I heard that Filch has sworn that even if he has to die and come back a ghost he will get his revenge."

Halfway through the meal as most people were finishing up Peeves again made an appearance.

"Hehehehahaha!" Peeves laughed manically. "I hoped you have all enjoyed the entertainment so far, and now for my next trick. Look out below!"

The little spirit threw the a glass jar he had been carrying to the ground. Several people screamed with the sound of shattering glass that was quickly followed by a rapidly increasing cloud of what looked like thick white smoke. In just moments the entire Great hall was enveloped. People started yelling over themselves as visibility to was cut to two feet in front of you. A few loud bangs were followed by the sound of McGonagall's voice calling over the crowd.

"Students! Students! Remain call and stay seated. We will deal with these disturbances in just a moment." She said, silencing the student body.

"Albus?" McGonagall called her voice easily carrying throughout the silent hall.

"I'm still in my seat Minerva." The voice of the Headmaster answered.

"Isn't there something you can do about this fog, its so thick we will be lucky to find our way out of the Hall."

"I'm sure I could try to attempt to clear this up." The voice of Dumbledore said with a chuckle. "However I find myself unable to at this point in time."

"Why? What are you talking about is something wrong?" The Headmistress asked.

"It seems that with the distraction and lack of visibility caused by the fog our school's resident poltergeist took advantage of the situation, and well." Albus said in an amused voice. "He was able to pour some of the same concoction he used on Professor Snape onto my hands and then stick them to the arms of my chair. I'm afraid I will be stuck here until our potions master gets his hands on some mermaid scale."

It turned out that the three jars of _Gary's Fog Bank_ were just enough to fill the school, leaving some areas with more visibility that others. However it was able to cause enough trouble that an announcement was made saying that the rest of the classes were canceled for the day. Most of the students went out into the grounds to be able to see clearly. The majority of Slytherin house caught up on some much needed sun rays as they were unable to return to their common room because of the stench that still filled the dungeons.

Eventually the fog dissipated and people started settling down for the evening. It seemed that Peeves had either run out of supplies or decided to stop after the trick with the fog. Because he had not been seen since gluing the headmaster to his seat.

* * *

As night descended the local Soul Reaper moved unseen through the halls tracking down his partner in crime. Despite all the chaos Harry had found the day very relaxing, and he wanted to make sure Peeves was alright.

He eventually tracked the Poltergeist's spirit energy to the secret passage behind the mirror where they had first met. The two souls looked at each other for several seconds before Harry broke the silence.

"Nice." He said, with a simple nod..

"I do my best." Peeves replied, beaming with pride.

Leaving Peeves to himself Harry walked around the school observing the restoration efforts. The house elves he had seen several weeks before were out in force. Each short creature seemed to bounce around as they enjoyed the amount of work for them to do. He noticed a group of four elves correcting his work as they carried a door off to another location.

Passing by the library he paused and stretched his senses inside. Harry smiled as he discovered that the room what clear of any signs of spirit energy. Creeping inside he quickly make his way to the restricted section, enjoying the thought that this could be yet another bonus of the days events. Finally Harry could get his mind around how Hogwarts functioned. He retrieved the thick book and sparked a kido light to life. The Soul Reaper made sure to keep his senses on guard as he sat down to read, he would not be surprised tonight.

Opening the thick book of rules and records Harry ignored the records and flipped to the rules. At first it was the normal statement saying that the school rules were put in place to ensure a safe and productive learning environment. That statement was followed by a list of what could be expected if the rules were violated. It was the same list he had found earlier, loss of house points, detention, physical punishment, then Expulsion. However after this list it gave a description of the purpose of what should be expected of the punishment.

_House points are awarded to encouraged friendly competition between the four Hogwarts houses. This encourages students to better themselves, their house and Hogwarts as a whole in order to easier achieve points. Points are awarded for exemplary acts both in and out of the class room, any action showing a students fine character should not go unrewarded. _

_The same is for the opposite as any dishonorable act should not go unpunished. Any act such as rule breaking, endangering others, or disrespecting acts, may result in loss of points if determined by a figure of authority. _

_However to ensure friendly competition does not turn into animosity between the houses all giving and taking of points must be fair and reasonable. Only prefects, Head-boy, Head-girl, and faculty have the ability to distribute house points. _

_If any of the three aforementioned groups show any unfair or biased addition or subtraction of points that individual is to have the privilege revoked. This is to be enforced by The Headmaster or Headmistress of the school, or by the Vice headmaster or headmistress. _

Harry smiled upon reading this the book also went on to mention that the same idea worked for detentions as well. Harry was surprised that the book had reasonable ideas for detentions and even physical punishment

He read that detentions should be in the guidelines of making students write lines or perform menial tasks and that detentions should not be given out for a first offense because it might distract a student from school work and the same idea applied for giving a student multiple detentions a week.

The book explained in a very eloquent wording that physical punishment should never be tortuous or permanently scaring, because such actions were not a good idea to perform on young people with unstable magic. All physical punishment were to be overseen by the Headmaster, the student's head of house and a prefect from that houses, and each of them were to agree that the punishment fit the crime.

The book even gave a few examples, such as stinging hexes, being turned to animal for a day, or even having the students hands restrained while put under the itching hex.

The ideas of rewards and punishments all seemed reasonable so Harry continued on to the actual rules. That's when the Soul Reaper started to see some strange things. For one the list was enormous, he had to skim through trying to find what he wanted. As he was looking through he saw that the school was seemingly operating on the same rules since it was founded. It seemed that many of the rules and privileges were forgotten or no longer enforce.

_Students are allowed to wear blades as long as they are not concealed inside clothing. All students less than thirteen years of age may only carry blades no longer than twelve inches in length. Any student that draws a blade in anger may have the privilege to wear a blade revoked._

Harry made a note in his mind to remember that rule, thinking it might come in handy for him at some point in time.

_All duels between students are to be conducted under the observation of a teacher or Head-Boy or Head-Girl. Rules are to be agreed upon before the start of the duel, if rules cannot be agreed on then the Hogwarts standard dueling rules apply. Those rules being wands only, victor is determined one participant is unable to continue or admits defeat. Duels are discouraged from any permanent damage, and under no circumstances are duel within Hogwarts to be until death. If an student kills their opponent even accidentally that student will be immediately expelled._

The book continued on to a very large section detailing the rules for inter-student courtship. The rules were incredibly strict, and Harry guessed that if these rules were still enforced that many of the students would face dire consequences.

For example on of the rules regarding relationships was. _All touching of lips is restricted to kissing of the hand and cheek, as long as such contact is no longer than two seconds, any longer is grounds for punishment_.

Harry paled when he red that any male student found trying to force himself on another student would by the rules be castrated.

There were just so many strange and archaic rules listen in the relationship section.

_Any female student found pregnant will be dismissed from school until birth of her child_.

The rules seemed to cover so many situations and sometimes in slightly disturbing ways.

_Any married student who's spouse is not in attendance at Hogwarts is allowed to spend five evenings a month outside of the castle grounds_.

The list just went on and on.

_Married students where both partners are attending Hogwarts are to be housed in the couples dorm, and will be the only exception for the castle's chastity ward to be lifted_.

Harry did not even know that the castle had a chastity ward, and was suddenly worried how it might work. Shaking off his own bewilderment, he resolved to try mapping out the castle. There were still plenty of locked doors and possible secret spaces still to be found if he didn't even know there was another dorm besides the four he had already found.

After the section of rules about relationships the rules seemed to just get stranger with a few exceptions.

_All rituals are only to be conducted with permission of a teacher. Any student found attempting any ritual involving the sacrifice of any sentient being shall be expelled_.

_No non magical people or creatures larger than a horse are allowed in the castle_.

_Any pets that are able to breath fire must have a fire quelling collar in place before being allowed in the castle_.

There were just so many rules a lot more than the few all the students had been told when they first arrived. He did find that it actually was a rule that magic could not be performed in the corridors. "_Maybe it's something like running in the corridors for muggle schools._" Harry thought.

There actually was not a listed rule about first years not being allowed to have there own brooms, the only rules was that no student was allowed to operate a broom without having taken a Hogwarts endorsed flying class.

The only restrictions on pets that students were allowed to keep was that they had to weigh less than twenty-five pounds and have a danger rating of three X or less, and any destruction or injury had to be compensated for by the owner.

It was true that according the rules students were not allowed in the Forbidden Forest, but there was an exception. Students were allowed to enter if they had permission of a teacher and the student and their guardians signed the Forbidden Forest reliability waver.

The only mention about not being allowed in the third floor corridor was mentioned in a rule that said.

_No student is to be found out of bounds, this includes anywhere after curfew, personal dorms and bedrooms to where the individual had not been invited and any location that has been declared out of bounds by the Head of School ._

However going by that line of thought Harry could go into the dorms of other houses if he was invited.

He smiled as he read the next section. I was a section that had rules for the staff themselves.

_All rule additions and changes are to be done at the quarterly meeting with the Board of Governors and Head of School._

_All Professors are to be held to the highest in teaching excellence. Any faculty may be dismissed by the Head of School or by a majority vote within the Board of Governors if an individual falls below the agreed the desired level of excellence_.

_Disciplinary action may be taken if may be taken if any faculty is found to be abusing or giving unfair grading to any student._

Harry had found what he wanted, the rest of the section was filled with same sort of random rules that were in the other sections. Stuff dealing with teacher student relationships, and dangerous teaching.

The black clad Harry closed the thick book. He been unhappy about the unfair teaching standards that Snape had with the Slytherins. This seemed to have caused a lot resentment to the focused at House Slytherin. Some of the resentment was earned because even he had to admit that the House of Snakes had more than their fair share of the schools arrogant stuck up prats.

However just from observing the Slytherins he could tell that a lot of them were decent people were just trying to learn, but were forced to keep their heads down because of the resentment from the rest of the school and the image they were expected to keep from many in their own house.

Harry knew that at some point he might have to come back and reads some of the many sections of the large book that he had missed but for now he had enough to start to form a plan.

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(Author Notes.) Ok much longer chapter than I expected to write. I hope I pulled off the humor well enough that it was at least somewhat entertaining. Anyway somewhat of a filler chapter but it set things up for stuff I have planned later. Alright then the first person that reviews giving me the correct velocity of an unladen swallow will be mentioned in the next chapters author notes.


	15. Questions and Quidditch

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

(Author Notes) Alright I wish to thank DarkReaver724 for being the first one to correctly answer that an unladen sparrow travels at approximately eleven meters per second. The rest of you were a little too late in answering and you simply get the consolation prize of being able to successfully cross the bridge of death.

My first attempt at Quidditch and it has a lot of Quidditch related jargon in it. I will put all the meanings at the end of the chapter in the author notes. You may also visit the Harry Potter Wiki where it has all the information.

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Albus Dumbledore again woke from a uneasy sleep. For the past two days he did not get as much sleep as he wanted to, his mind was too busy. Again his thoughts centered on Harry Potter. His astounding display of dealing with the troll was vexing, reliving and troubling at the same time. Mr. Potter actions almost certainly saved the life of young Miss Granger. Harry placed himself in danger to protect a fellow classmate, and that could never be a bad thing. He acted like the hero that he needed to be.

However the way he performed the task is what troubled him. After discreetly reviewing the memories of Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger he was no closer to unraveling the mystery of the Boy-Who-Lived.

The unknown magic was both strange and powerful. Albus knew that there were many fully trained wizards that would have a hard time dealing with a mountain troll. However if a list was made of magicians that could pull out enough energy to overpower a trolls natural magical resistance and blow a hole in its chest, well needless to say it would be short.

Albus had already know that Harry had the potential to become a powerful wizard but he had never expected it this soon. He had already been uneasy about Harry's unknown power but the last display had increased his anxiety by a factor of ten. The Headmaster had started calling in some favors to help his investigation.

The best clue he had to go on was the spells based in the Japanese language. "_Summoning of Tracking Sparrows is an interesting name for a spell_." He thought to himself recalling the memory of Mr. Weasley. Albus had been slowly trying to pick apart the mechanisms of the wandless magic.

He had requested some books on the theories and basics of Japanese sealing techniques. At least that was his best guess as to what the tracking circle had been from the memory. There was also the odd incantation that was said before the spell was activated. Slowly Mr. Potters abilities started to resemble things Albus was familiar with. It also helped that some of the information had been given indirectly from Harry himself.

"_Ah the wonders of peer pressure._" He thought lightly.

There was a chant involved with this magic however it was much shorter than any other chants he had encountered. Other chants could take minutes, hours of ever days before they were complete. Dumbledore now wished he have been able to hear exactly what Harry had been saying before he yelled his spell of, "_Red Flame Cannon_." He mentally translated. Harry had also said that there was the added ability to drop the chant if a person was skilled enough,

Albus expected there was more to Harry's magic than just speaking the chant and calling out the spells name. He hoped that no detestable sort of ritual was needed in order to be able use this wandless power.

As one part of the Headmaster's mind dissected the strange magic another part was thinking of possibilities of who could have taught Harry this ability. He had at least a made up name of The Janitor. All he knew for certain was that The Janitor had the ability to become invisible and bypass his monitoring wards. He or she was protective of Harry's well being and was not above using intimidation to achieve their goals. Albus also suspected that The Janitor was the character that taught Harry Occlumency and this odd wandless magic, but he could not be certain of that.

The Headmaster was starting to suspect that there could be a group involved with young Harry. A secret organization possibly based out of Japan could explain much of the mystery around the boy. If such a group did exist Harry Potter could have easily become a person of interest to them It was not unheard of for a powerful group of people to keep themselves secreted away from the notice of others while they developed a nearly completely different branch of magic. The Druids operated in secret for hundreds of years as they created and used giant stone circles around the British Isles. Eventually the Druids started to break apart due to internal problems within their order, but when some former members started to spread Druidic knowledge it was seen the druids had revolutionized the way people thought about runes and athermancy.

Of course this was all just conjecture but if it was true then that raised more questions. What where their goals. What were their plans with Harry. Why let Harry attend Hogwarts if they have been teaching him in secret so far. Too many questions and too few answers left Albus Dumbledore uneasy.

The Headmaster rubbed his hands together before turning over and trying to get back to sleep. His hands still tingled from different potions used on them. The Gluing Goop while not dangerous was not meant to be applied to skin. After several minutes of being bound to his chair his hands developed a persistent itch that was impossible to scratch. However Hagrid was able to get in contact with the mermaids in the Black Lake and get some of their scales. It seems that the mermaids had no problems parting with a few scales treating them like old toenail clippings, because some flaked off every few days. Professor Snape was able to brew a counter potion and Albus was unstuck in less than an hour, dispite having to then apply some itch cream after being released.

Dumbledore did not care much, in his mind Peeves was a welcome part of the school. The little poltergeist kept you on your toes and ensured the days did not become boring scholastic routine. Although Peeves had never raised this much havoc in one day. It was obvious that he had some sort of help, and whoever was able to secure any sort of partnership with the poltergeist deserved some entertainment. As long as no one was hurt and did not disrupt classes too much then Albus would let it slide. The Headmaster smiled as he drifted off to sleep thinking about Goofy Gary's Fog Bank in a Jar, he recalled that the Marauders often enjoyed using that same product in their pranks.

* * *

While the Headmaster might be alright with Peeves actions the rest of the ghosts were not. The Bloody Baron was especially upset at the little spirits actions.

"Well today's activities were exciting." Sir Nick said to the other three ghosts.

"More like humiliating." The Grey Lady huffed. "Peeves has tarnished the names of every spirit within Hogwarts."

"I know what he did was reprehensible, but I have always been saying that we should reach out more to Peeves. This is obviously an example of acting out that could have been brewing for decades." The Fat Friar said.

"No." The Bloody Baron wheezed with an air of finality. "Something has changed."

The other ghosts looked intently at the Slytherin Ghost. "What do you mean something has changed?" The Gray Lady finally asked.

"As you know he is my vassal and since he is bound to his oaths I have always been to control him. I confronted him after today and it was not what I was expecting. When I told him that I was disappointed and as I was about to punish him, he interrupted me and told me that I could take my disappointment and.. Well I won't repeat what he said in polite company. He continued saying that a new friend of his pointed out that his oaths of fealty broke the second he died, and that no ghost in the castle would control him anymore."

"A new fiend?" The Grey Lady thought out loud.

"Perhaps it's whoever help him with his pranks today." The Fat Fiar said. "There is no way he was able to do all that he did without some help. That's why I have always though co-operation was a better solution."

"I don't like this." Sir Nic said. "We have always had The Barron if Peeves got out of hand, and using other methods is frustrating."

Each ghost knew what The Gryffindor Ghost was talking about. Peeves could move physical objects but the only things that the other Hogwarts ghosts could interact with was other spirits. Despite his size it took at least two, often three and sometimes four other ghosts to restrain the poltergeist.

"Yes, well it seems that this is an interesting year." Nearly Headless Nick said. "I will ask some ghost to start asking around to find out who Peeves' new friend is. Once we find out who it is we shall have a talk with him and convince him to help us for the sake of the school. If this individual does not agree at first it might be very fun to do some old fashion haunting."

"Depriving people of sleep is below us." The Bloody Barron moaned. "Let's simply spread the word to the other ghost about keeping an eye out for this friend of Peeves. Everyone is already watching for the black cloaked stranger, something more shouldn't be a problem."

* * *

The next few days were quite relaxing for Harry, he had only been confronted once about his 'mysterious magic'. Ron had tried to recreate the circle for his kido, but got the symbols wrong within each section. Ron had tired to get him to tell the spirit chant because he could not remember it all. Ron had gotten angry when Harry did not tell him.

"Why not? I thought we were friends." Ron had yelled. "You already said it in front of me before, why won't you show me now? What's the big secret?"

"We are friends, but you're not acting very friendly. I'm not going to tell you, so drop it." Was Harry's reply.

After about half a day of pouting Ron seemed to have gotten over it, and after a quick apology things went back to normal.

Eventually Saturday rolled around and the first Quidditch game of the season arrived. Harry was very excited to start his first game. The Weasley Twins had joked that Wood was on the verge of tears after watching Harry fly after the Snitch. There was just something invigorating about flying on a broom chasing after the little golden ball. Flying on a broom was very different from flying as a Soul Reaper. Flying as a Soul Reaper gave you complete control of your actions. Often on a broom you had to hold on for dear life as you executed some maneuvers. Sometimes it felt like the broom itself was yanking you around at high speeds often giving you enjoyable chills up the spine and tickles in your stomach. Harry wanted to start playing, it was thrilling chasing after the Snitch. He had a feeling that it would be even better with some competition.

The team had gathered in the locker room all dressed in their red Quidditch robes.

"Alright everyone." Oliver Wood began. "We've all worked hard for this."

"No arguments there." Fred whined.

"Ever since Harry joined the team you have been a bigger taskmaster than before. George stated. "Not that we blame you Harry."

"Silence, before I decided that you two need even more training." Wood threatened. "This is the best team that Gryffindor has had in years, decades even. I don't know this could be the best team Gryffindor has ever had. We have the youngest seeker in a century. Two beaters that don't just look alike but think alike. Three chasers that are grace personified."

"Awww You're such a charmer." Alicia Spinnet said jokingly.

"We can't forget about our brave leader." George said.

"Virtually a flying brick wall that defies all attempts at scoring." Fred continued.

"Sometimes it pays to be thick as a brick." George finished, getting a round of laughter from form everyone except Wood.

"Lovely day for the first Quidditch match of the year between Gryffindor and Slytherin." Lee Jordan announced as the teams made it out on the field. "The line ups are. Slytherin Team Captain Marcus Flint is joined by his two other chasers Adrian Pucey and Richard McKnight. Argos Harris and Paul Portley are their Beaters. Seeker Terence Higgs will be after the Snitch and Keeper Miles Bletchley will be on the opposite side of the field as the Gryffindor team Captain Oliver Wood guarding their hoops. Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, and Katie Bell are a trio of Chasers ladies flying today. Picking up a pair of bats are Fred and George Weasley are the Gryffindor Beaters, good luck telling them apart. Finally, You've all heard of him, man of mystery and youngest Seeker in a century Harry Potter!"

The majority of the school cheered loudly drowning out most of the boos coming from the Slytherins.

"I want a nice clean game." Madam Hooch said as she released the Snitch and Bludgers.

"And their off." Jordan announced, as the Quaffle was released. "Gryffindor Chaser Johnson taking the Quaffle immediately. Neat pass to Spinnet, now moving up the field passes to- No intercepted as McKnight swoops in. McKnight passes to Flint as the Slytherin Chasers take up a Hawkshead Attack Formation, Flint dodges a Bludger and moves into the scoring area, he- whoa saved by Wood. Katie bell is given the Quaffle, she's the other rookie on the Gryffindor team. Bell dodges Pucey and Flint is right - Ouch! Foul! It looked like the Slytherin captain was attempting a Transylvanian Tackle but was unable to pull back in time and hit her on the shoulder."

Looking below him Harry saw Katie rolling her shoulder, as well as Marcus Flint shaking out his hand. Harry had read about the rules and general strategies and it was in his personal opinion that Quidditch games would be a lot cleaner if the penalties were more severe than a penalty shot. Maybe something like taking the offending player out of the game for a few minutes like they did in Hockey would be a better idea. He shrugged he did not write the rules.

Jordan continued the commentary. "Back in play, Chaser Johnson takes the foul shot and puts it in. Gryffindor takes first blood. Gryffindor still in possession as Spinnet moves up the field."

The game continued like that as each team went back and forth neither team scoring much. Harry continued to look for the Snitch as he half heartedly listened to the commentary, the scores Gryffindor fifty Slytherin thirty.

"Bell now has the Quaffle, in comes Flint and Bell starts flying strait up, she might be scared from what happened earlier. She's getting high an- A great Porskoff Ploy down to Spinnet who beats Miles at the hoops, sixty - thirty Gryffindor. McKnight now in possession and- Whoa hold on now, Harry Potter is on the move, and Higgs is left chasing. Any one see the Snitch yet, oh there it is Potter is closing the distance and watch out-. Spectacular! Potter narrowly avoids Flint's blatant attempt at Blatching using an impressive Sloth Grip Roll. Now Potter's closing on the Snitch on his new Nimbus 2000."

Harry's eyes were focused on the fluttering golden ball in front of him as he slowly chased it down. Tears were streaming out of his eyes from the wind when he caught a black shape out of the corner of his eye. Harry rose dodging above the Bludger just as his instincts told him to slow down. The other Bludger came strait from above if he hadn't slowed down it would have likely hit him in the head.

"That was a close one! Now Higgs passes by Potter and is after the Snit- No! One of The Indistinguishable Weasley Twins got a Bludger on the tail of his broom sending him off course. Spectacular bat work from Gryffindor. Er and not bad Bludgers from Slytherin either." Lee said when McGonagall gave him a look.

Harry was disappointed as the Snitch disappeared. The Gryffindor Seeker started to gain altitude just a Alicia scored again.

"Score is now seventy to thirty Gryffindor pulling ahead." Jordan announced. "Adrian Pucey now has the Quaffle dodges Johnson, passes to Flint- ouch! Pucey give the Quaffle away and getting immediately hit by a Bludger. Now Flint is moving up the field passes to McKnight- back to Flint- back to Mcknig- Oh bungled. Richard dropped the Quaffle and Bell is there to pick it up."

The game continued like that Gryffindor and Slytherin each scored once more. Harry was high above the stands circling the field like a raptor when suddenly his broom twitched. He grabbed the broom tightly wondering what was causing the broom to shake, it had never done that before was something wrong with it? Then the broom started jerking around wildly.

"Oh dang- I mean good save by Bletchley, and hang on. Something is happening to Potter's broom its going crazy. I don't know how he is managing to hold on, it bucking harder than a angry hippogriff." Lee announced as the crowed gasped.

Harry was having a hard time, this was more than just a broom malfunction. If he had to guess someone was able to gain control of his broom, the brooms movement were too precise to be random. Suddenly with a buck Harry was sent over the front of his broom and a quick horizontal spin broke his grip. The crowd gasped again as Harry went into free fall. Looking down Harry made a decision it was unlikely any one would be able to catch him. Aiming his hand at the ground Harry used his kido in order to save himself.

"Bakudo number thirty-seven. Tsuriboshi!" With a flash of blue white energy Harry's spell gathered itself and shot out bands of supporting energy. The crowed gasped for a third time and the bands hit the elevated stands around the stadium.

The last remaining Potter still had a few seconds before he would land in his spiritual safety net. As he was preparing himself when a flash of gold caught his eye. Thrusting his hand out swiftly he intercepted the object his fingers closing around a cool smooth ball. Harry finally hit his bakudo successfully saving him reducing his decent slow enough that did not even jostle him when he landed.

The stands erupted with cheers as the kido spell recovered from the stretch, and Fred Weasley flew over to him.

"Wow Harry this is a nice trick." Fred admitted, as he hovered over the net. "I can give you a lift to the ground if you need it-. Wait do you have the Snitch."

Harry waved the little golden winged ball above his head a few times before climbing on behind Fred. "Harry Potter has the Snitch! Did any one see what happened there? Well I guess Potter catches the Snitch awarding Gryffindor one-hundred-fifty points, ending the game with Slytherin at forty points and two-hundred-thirty for Gryffindor.

"He cheated!" Marcus Flint yelled as all the players gathered on the ground. "He used magic to catch the Snitch. "No he didn't!" Wood replied hotly. "He did nothing to the Snitch, he used his magic to save himself."

"What's this all about?" Madam Hooch asked as she landed nearby.

"Potter used magic during a match. Gryffindor has to forfeit." Flint claimed.

Then many players started talking at the same time trying to make their argument heard.

"Quiet." Madam Hooch commanded. "I saw what happened Potter caught the Snitch while in freefall, there is nothing in the rules that says you have to be on a broom to catch the snitch."

"But he used magic!" The Slytherin Seeker Terence Higgs yelled.

"Again there is nothing in the rules that says you can't use magic to save yourself from imminent death from falling. The rules only state that you can't use magic in anyway to affect any of the brooms, the balls, or the abilities of the players themselves. I saw nothing like that. Potter caught the Snitch fairly, Gryffindor wins. No more arguing unless you want me to start investigating what might have happened to Mr. Potter's broom.

The Slytherins shuffled off the field as Madam Hooch made the announcement that Harry caught the Snitch fairly, despite him being off his broom at the time. The Gryffindors in the crowd cheered as the team went off the changing room.

* * *

After Harry finished changing he exited and found Hermione as well as the large man that he had seen feeding the Cerberus I the third floor corridor.

"Hi Hermione." Harry greeted, then turning to the man he knew was the Grounds Keeper. "Hello I'm Harry, I remember you from the boat ride across the lake."

"Nice to finally meet yeh." He said extending his massive hand to Harry." Name's Hagrid, I'm the Keeper of the Keys and Grounds here at Hogwarts. Saw yeh flyin' out there, yer father was a great Quidditch player as well."

"You knew my parents?" Harry asked shaking the giant's hand as it completely enveloped his smaller digits.

" O' Course I did. I was friends with them and I was hoping that I could invite yeh ter tea sometime." Hagrid said.

Harry thought for a bit, considering if it would be wise to be with the large man. "I don't have anything to do right now we could go now, but could Hermione come with us?"

"If she wants ter I don't have any problem inviting one of yer friends too."

Hermione simply nodded and the three of them went to Hagrid's strangely proportioned hut near the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

"That was some really excellent flyin' although I never saw a broom act like that before. But it's the first time I've seen yer special magic everyone has been talkin' about." Hagrid said after they had all been serves hot black tea and some inedible cakes.

Hermione then spoke up. "I have read about being able to do something like that. I think someone was jinxing your broom."

"I've heard about that but there is no way a student would be able ter do strong dark magic like that." Hagrid countered.

"Well." Hermione muttered looking between Hagrid and then Harry. "I think it was Professor Snape. I saw him muttering something while he was staring at you, and that is exactly what I read about."

An idea popped into Harry's head as Hagrid started defending Snape. He hoped what he was about to do was not a mistake. "It obvious to anyone that has seen Snape's actions around me that the man hates me for some reason. Also I have been wondering why he would be near the third floor corridor when he should have been down in the dungeons dealing with a troll. I mean maybe he was using the distraction to get whatever the Cerberus was protecting."

"How do yeh know about Fluffy?" Hagrid asked his voice filled with surprise and accusation. "Yer father often got himself into trouble and Fluffy can be a bit rowdy at times, only meself, Dumbldore and Nicolas Flammel know how to deal with him properly."

Harry silently filed the name Nicolas Flammel away for further research. "Don't worry I was never in any danger. I'm just surprised that with the rumor network in this school that every one hasn't heard about Fluffy."

Eventually the conversation changed, they stated talking about Hagrid duties as Keeper of the Keys and also learned that Harry's parents had been Head-boy and Head-Girl at Hogwarts. Harry really enjoyed spending time with the large man. He was friendly, informative and humorous in a strange way and refreshing way. Eventually it was time for them to leave they said their goodbyes and promised that they would visit each other again some time.

"Harry I know what a Cerberus is." Hermione stated after they left Hagrid's hut making their way up the castle. "You shouldn't be breaking the rules like that, you could have been killed or worse expelled."

Harry looked incredulously over at the bushy haired girl wondering how skewed her priorities were. "Don't worry Hermione I was never in any danger. It was just another one of my talents."

Hermione nodded and looked like she wanted to ask more but Harry simply walked faster making the girl quicken her pace to catch up.

* * *

That night Harry was exploring the castle some more for the last few night he had been trying to map Hogwarts. It amazed him how complex Hogwarts really was. While he might know his way around the school, actually trying to draw a floor plan was nearly impossible. His initial rough measurements really made little sense. If the Laws of Physics were to be believed then part of the second floor should be jutting into the Great Hall and one of the larger courtyards should have at least two hallways passing through it.

Harry suddenly heard someone walking towards him and instinctively backed into cover. He had noticed that people were starting to react when he was near them. Several times when he was letting Gigan sub for him during History of Magic people looked directly at him before blinking a few time or rubbing his eyes. He was starting to have to use more of his skills in stealth.

It reminded him of training with Death in the Seiretei. Harry would have to hide from both Death and Grim in the vast empty Seiretei. I was like hide and seek for Soul Reapers. Harry fondly remembered when he was younger when he had been found by Death and was trying to get away using Flash step in order to evade his Sensei. However it was not enough to get away as he looked behind him to see if he had gotten away. Seeing that Death was not behind him, he smiled thinking that he was successful. However just when he looked in front of him he saw a dark imposing figure standing right in his path. Unable to stop he ran right into Death as his sensei's arms enveloped him.

It was not often that Death showed much emotion to Harry but there were enough to keep Harry content. He knew that Death cared for him, and Harry cared greatly for his Sensei. Death was the only person that Harry trusted entirely.

The Soul Reaper shook his head clear of his thoughts as Professor Quirrell passed by him. As soon as Quirrell came into sight he could tell that something was different. The Defense Against the Dark Arts was confidently striding down the passage. It was quite different than his hunched short steps that he took whenever he was in the presence of others.

His curiosity peaked Harry fell into step behind the not so timid Professor. Eventually Quirrell's path took them outside the castle and directly into the Forbidden Forrest. As soon trees were thick enough that they prevented any sight of the grounds Quirrell stopped.

"Master, I beg you to speak with your servant." The Professor called.

Harry quickly started looking around them for whoever Quirrell might be talking to, but was taken back as a eerie voice answered that seemed to be coming from the same place that Quirrell stood. "My patience grows thin, I would have expected greater results by now."

Harry's eyes narrowed, either Quirrell was a schizophrenic ventriloquist or there was something else going on. He crept closer to the odd teacher all his senses on edge.

"I beg your forgiveness master. I had no idea that the Potter brat's magic would be able to save him." Quirrell pleaded looking up at seemingly nothing.

"Hmmm." The disembodied voice mused. "I suppose it isn't entirely your fault. There is seemingly much that is not know about the boy. Simply killing him might not be the best course of action. I will have to consider the issue more."

As soon as the voice stopped speaking Harry felt what was happening. Quirrell's spirit energy had always seemed strange, and until now he could not pin down exactly what was different. The truth surprised and worried him, There were two soul in Quirrell's body. The more he felt out oddity the more it disturbed him. Quirrell's soul felt like it was sick, because the other soul was attached to the Professor. The other Soul is what really disturbed him, something was very wrong with it. The Soul did not feel like anything he had felt before, it was so weak that he could barely feel it's spiritual pressure.

"Yes my lord." Quirrell simpered again. "Please have you thought of anything else of how to deal with Hagrid's beast. The place is warded so that simply blasting the beast would alert the Headmaster."

"The old fool is going senile, the wards put in place only will alert him if the trials are broken, but if they are bypassed then he will not be alerted. Anyone would be able to get to the stone with enough time to figure out the challenges." The disembodied voiced hissed.

Harry wondered what to do, it was obvious to him that Quirrell not Snape was the one that tried to kill him. Although that did not mean that Snape and Quirrell were not on the same side, but Quirrell was after whatever this stone was that Fluffy was guarding.

Harry was quickly thinking about how to handle this situation. He could kill them and not have to worry about whatever they might be planning, although that might cause an entirely new set of problems. Perhaps caturing them and seeing what Death knew about them. The young Soul Reaper he had never encounter two souls in one body before, and Death never told him any stories about it happening. Was it some form of magic that could affect souls? Harry grudgingly decided to leave then alone till he had more information. So he simply had to wait and see if he could get some more info by listening to them.

"The first thing that must be done is to find a way around Hagrid's beast he has always had a way with animals since he is hardly better than the creatures. He is foolish and his lips are loose it should be simple to trick him into giving up the needed information." Then voice then seemed to sigh that sounded more like a hiss which caused Quirrell to shudder. "For now there are things to be done, leave here, there is much to do."

"Yes master." The Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher said as he disappeared with a 'pop'.

"_Disapparition_." Harry thought grudgingly, knowing from his studies that he would be unable to follow. So he slowly returned to the castle wondering what should be done with the information he had received.

* * *

The next day Harry was distracted as he went through his classes. His thoughts were centered on the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. His actions seemed to be centered around whatever the stone was that Fluffy was guarding. He really did not know much only knowing that this stone had something to do with Nicolas Flamel whoever he was.

The ghosts had again taken up guarding the Library so he was unable to research at night. There was also another problem when it came to studying in the Library. Since he had become friends with Hermione she no longer simply glared at him when they were both in there together. The girl was almost always in the Library when he was and she would always come and share a table with him. It wasn't terrible, many times it was very helpful, since they were both new to the magical world they would share information to each other that would have been common knowledge to people that had grown up around magic. Hermione was also a good person to do homework with. However the problems started when Harry wanted to read something by himself. Hermione was intensely curious and always had to ask what he was reading or researching. Harry got the distinct feeling that he was being studied, all his actions were being pieced together in order to unravel his secrets.

Harry sighed as he wandered the halls in his Soul Reaper form as another class ended. The last class had been History of Magic and even Gigan was starting to rebel often begging not to have to go to the extremely boring class. He was concerned that he would have to return to actually being I that dull class. It would be much harder to move around school in the daytime if he became visible, and switching with the replacement soul would become more complicated.

The young Soul Reaper shook his head hopefully if everything went as planned things would be getting better at Hogwarts. So for now he slowly made his way to the meeting point where Gigan was to bring his body to him.

Gigan in Harry's body rounded a corner heading towards him when suddenly Crabb and Goyle came up behind him and grabbed each of the arms of Harry's body.

A burst of anger shot through the young Soul Reaper saw this happen, and he slowly made his way to Gigan. The replacement soul simply looked in between the two large boys with a slightly surprised look on his face, as the two Slytherins forced him to turn looking at the direction he just came from. Gikongan were limited to what they could do independently, they were programmed to protect the body they inhabited from physical harm. However two people simply grabbing the arms would not be enough to activate any defense efforts.

"No so tough now that you can't use your arms?" The voice of Malfoy drawled as he came around the corner. "I figured that you need to need to use your arms in order to activate that stupid magic of yours. I've learned your magic is slow, so you just have to deal with it in a certain way. Even if you did take a troll out, which I still doubt. 'Bakudo Number one, Sai.' is a pretty long incantation even if you can drop whatever incantation chant I heard about."

The young Soul Reaper discreetly reentered his body just as Marcus Flint followed Draco around the corner. Now that he was back in control of his body he could feel the grips on two thick set boys on each of his sides. Harry starred passively at Malfoy and Flint as the older boy took out his wand.

"We don't like cheaters here at Hogwarts I think we need to put that lesson into that skull of yours." Flint said slightly maliciously.

"I didn't cheat." Harry said keeping his voice even. "My spell was only to stop my fall, getting the Snitch on the way down was just a bonus."

"Yeah right." Flint mocked. "Nobody knows how your magic works, and I don't believed that you catching the snitch was simply a nice surprise. Even if it was it was something you did not deserve. So I think I deserve something just for the trouble you caused."

Harry's eyes narrowed angrily as Flint's wand moved. "Furnunculus!" Harry was in motion as soon as Flint said his incantation. The two goons on either side of him were not fighters nor were they that strong, all they really had going for them was size. That really does not help you much when someone can manipulate your balance and control where that size goes.

With a simple spin of his wrist and a jerk Harry broke Goyle's hold on him and pulled him into the path of the spell taking the hit for him. The spell hit Goyle in shoulder causing him to howl in pain, completely letting go of his captive and stumble away. Harry then turned to Crabbe, and spun into him while taking control of the boy's arm. Lowering himself and pulling on the larger Slytherin's limb he flipped the boy over his shoulder in a classic Judo throw. Crabbe landed poorly, the air in his lungs violently expelling.

Glancing over Harry noticed that both Malfoy and Flint had stunned looks on their faces, but Flint quickly recovered. "Stupify!" Flint Snarled, but he was too slow as Harry pivoted on his right foot and spun out of the way of the spell. Harry's spin carried him towards Flint and just as he finished his left hand shot out grabbing the Quidditch captain's still extended wrist, then bringing his right arm around Harry sent his elbow into the older boy's lower ribs.

Flint gasped in pain and he was brought to his knees as Harry forced his arm down behind his back with a twist. Draco seemed have finally gotten out of his shock and was fumbling around in his robes for his wand. He never go the chance to retaliate because Harry snapped a kick from the hip and impacted solidly with Malfoy's stomach.

With a groaning wheeze Malfoy grabbed his stomach and fell to his knees. Harry pried Flint's wand from his fingers before he stepped back away from the group that attack him. The young Gryffindor finally took his own wand out holding it out threateningly. Harry did not know much magic but after reading Curses and Counter-Curses and practicing some of the books spells he was confident that he would be able to stop anyone who might recover and try anything.

Looking down at the four Slytherins he saw that Goyle was the only one on his feet but was left holding his cursed arm, his eyes shining from the pain. Crabbe was slowly getting to his feet but was still on his hands and knees. Flint and Malfoy were both breathing erratically, Flint holding his side while Malfoy was in the fetal position.

"Didn't I tell you to leave me alone Malfoy? I guess I can deal with you even without my 'mysterious magic' huh?" Harry snarled not knowing if the blond boy could hear him. "And you Marcus Flint, for someone older than me you need to grow up. I didn't cheat and if you have such a problem with me catching myself with magic maybe I won't use it the next time someone falls off a broom. Not even if you were the next person to fall, lots of things can happen up there you know."

Flint had finally looked up at Harry as he continued to speak. "The only thing I have against you is what you just tried to pull and the violent way you fly. If you want to accuse people of cheating then look at yourself I noticed that you had quite a few fouls called on you. So stop acting so violent before you end up in Azkaban one of these days. I won't mess with you if you don't try anything with me. I have no problems with Slytherin House just some of the idiots in it. Deal with your issues someplace else and we will get along fine."

Harry dropped Flint's wand as it clattered on the ground where he stood and walked away in a manner that seemed to say that it would not be wise to attempt anything while his back was turned.

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(Author Notes) I wish to thank all my reviews, you do not know how much inspiration you have given me to continue this story. Many times I will get ideas from a simple comment or question that a review will give me. So please continue your wonderful reviews.

(Blatching) Flying with the intent of colliding.

(Transylvanian Tackle) A fake punch to the nose to confuse the opponent (as long as contact is not made, it is not illegal).

(Hawks Head Attack Formation) Three chasers fly in triangle shape to force other chasers aside.

(Porskoff Ploy) One chaser flies upward, and then throws the Quaffle down to another chaser directly below.

(Sloth Grip Role)A player hangs upside down on their broomstick.

(Bakudo Number thirty-seven, Tsuriboshi) Way of binding Number thirty-seven, Suspending Star. Creates a star-shaped cushion of Spiritual Energy, which anchors it to nearby objects with "ropes" of spirit particles. It can stop falling objects, acting like a safety net


	16. The Shocking Shadow

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

(Author Notes) Wow, sorry its been so long since I have updated. I have plenty excuses all of which I am sure don't want to hear. Basically it was my highly developed skills of procrastination taking over. Also this was not the easiest chapter to write and I am not sure if I did it very well. Anyway enjoy hopefully I will get the next chapter out soon.

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The next few days of school were considerably normal. Harry received another Hell Butterfly but since it was now becoming a fairly regular occurrence most of the school ignored the strange insect. Although the Headmaster was extremely irked that all of his attempts to either capture or track the black butterfly were met with failure. It seemed like it was going to be a regular breakfast. The morning post was delivered and students were starting to finish up breakfast when the peace was interrupted by a high piercing laughter. Once again the resident poltergeist swooped in through the great doors. Everyone instantly went on guard in case they might be the target of some prank.

"Heh hem." Peeves uttered. "Attention everyone I have a messaged to the entire school."

Hushed conversations broke out around the room as Peeves flipped upside down and unrolled some parchment he had with him.

"Leave this Hall Peeves." Snape hissed from the Head Table. "We do not want to listen to your insane ramblings."

Peeves smiled maliciously before replying. "Oh don't worry you greasy git these are not my words and it is very important that you listen to what I am about to read. It would be wise to heed these words or else dire consequences might happen."

The Headmaster's curiosity was peaked, at the serious tone the poltergeist took. "Very well Peeves what do you have to say.

"Greetings Hogwarts Staff." Peeves read. "It has come to my attention that this school has fallen below its own self created standards. I refer to the fact that many of the schools rules are either not being enforced or are being ignored. For example the House Point System has become a mockery of what it was originally intended to do. Some individuals that have the ability to award or take points are abusing that power. According to the School rules those individuals that unfairly award or take points are to have that privilege revoked."

Muttering was heard around the room as Peeves paused for a bit as several scoffs were heard, and a sour sneer was seen on Professor Snape's face.

"While this is hopefully a simple oversight and will quickly be rectified so that the school may return to a healthy and productive learning environment, just in case it is not I will offer some incentive to ensure these corrections take place. I give you forty-eight hours to make an announcement of any plans to correct this error. If these words are not heeded I will be forced to take actions to encourage you. Rest assured that no living being will be harmed. This is simply a friendly warning, please do not force me to give any unfriendly warnings. Signed The Shadow." Peeves said finishing the message, letting the parchment drop to the ground.

"He he ha ha. I honestly hope that you don't listen then the school can get really interesting."

Peeves flew out of the Great Hall as everyone started to talk about what was just said.

"Who's The Shadow?" Many questioned.

"Two days? That's not much time."

"Who is brave or dumb enough to start a fight with Snape?"

"What do the rules actually say about the House Points?"

Dumbledore instantly looked down at Mr. Potter who was idly eating some eggs his face revealing nothing. Whoever this Shadow was it reminded him greatly about The Janitor. Many thoughts were rushing through his mind. Was Harry involved in this somehow? Was The Shadow simply another name for The Janitor? Were they different people but from the same group? What was Peeves part in this?

The Headmaster leaned over to his deputy. "Spread the word for a staff meeting after classes today." McGonagall nodded as Dumbledore stood up.

"Students." Albus spoke. "I am sure that this is just another prank Peeves enjoys gifting us with. Rest assured that we all do our best to ensure a continual excellent learning environment that is both safe and fair. So I would suggest that you not fret about anything Peeves has said and since classes will begin soon that it would be wise to worry about learning to the best or your abilities."

* * *

The classes were normal as most other days, however despite the Headmasters suggestions the Hogwarts rumor mill started to pump out wild stories about whoever The Shadow might be. A lot of people seemed to make the connection with The Shadow and whoever may have helped Peeves with the school wide pranks. This of course drew a lot of attention to The Incriminate Weasley Twins, since many still thought that they were involved in Peeves' pranking spree. Of course The Twins immediately admitted, Fred being The Shadow and George being the Shadow's Shadow.

Eventually classes ended and the faculty gathered to meet about The Shadow's message.

"What's this about Albus are you taking what Peeves said seriously?" Professor Sprout asked.

"A threat against the school should always be taken seriously." Dumbledore responded.

"I agree with Albus." Flitwick said. "There is something very odd going on. This is certainly not Peeves' style. We should assume that The Shadow is real and not someone Peeves made up in order to pull our leg."

"I say we get some experts in here exorcize the insipid little spirit, and be done with all of this nonsense."

"Nonsense is it." McGonagall huffed. "I happen to agree with what The Shadow said. Is it just me or does anyone else think its odd that Slytherin has won the House Cup by a landslide six years running."

Many of the other teachers noticed the look the Transfiguration teach gave Snape. It was not talked about much but every knew that House Slytherin began its winning streak the same year that Snape became the Slytherin's Head of House.

"Is that jealousy I hear Headmistress?" Snape baited. "Its just been that Slytherin has had some excellent groups the past few years."

"Do not take me for a fool Severus. My hearing is not so bad that I have not heard some students muttering about some of your methods of teaching." She responded her lips drawing into a thin line.

Dumbledore interrupted before more could be said. "Please calm yourselves, I know of all these concerns. Please understand that I have thought long on the situation at the school and I am dealing with it in a way which will eventually benefit everyone involved."

Flitwick internally sighed. "_Isn't that just like Albus, quieting our concerns without explaining his actions or seeming doing anything._" The Charms Professor thought.

Then what are we going to do about what this Shadow character?" Professor Sprout asked.

"Well first off we must simply keep level heads to deal with this. We don't need anyone blaming or pointing fingers at others because of what this Shadow said." The Headmaster said looking around at the gathered teachers. "That might just be what he or she might want. It is always best to stay united in the face of opposition and this situation is no different. We also are not going to exorcize our resident poltergeist as Severus suggested. All the spirits add to this schools character and history and I don't want to change things that have been around for longer than I have."

"Are you suggesting that we do nothing?" Professor Sinistra asked.

"For now there is not much we can do." Albus replied. "I have to ask if any of you have noticed or heard anything strange going on?"

"Albus this is a magical school when is something strange not happening?" Flitwick spoke.

The Headmaster chuckled. "Ah of course. Well if any of you notice anything stranger than the normal oddities, I would appreciate it if you brought it to my attention. For now however we will simply have to be more watchful for the next few days. I have confidence that we will be able to prevent any untoward actions. Please tell the prefects to be on guard for any news about either Peeves or The Shadow. If there is nothing else to be said you are dismissed."

The teachers looked around before the all slowly stood and left. Eventually only Snape, Trelawney and Dumbledore were left in the room.

"Is there something you wanted Sybill" Albus asked, but was stunned as the divination Teacher's head suddenly spun around to look at him. Trelawney's eyes were nearly closed, as she spoke in a strange voice.

"**Beware the tipping scales. The powers of three gather and clash. The first hidden in the light. The second consumed by darkness. The third mysterious as the void. Beware the tipping scales.**" Trelawney's voice slowly faded away as she settling her head down and seemingly fell asleep.

"Well that was interesting." Snape drawled.

Albus sighed, it was rare for Sybill to have a prophecy. "I trust that you will keep this to yourself."

"Of course I personally have had enough problems with such foolishness, but are you going to do anything about it?" Snape asked.

"I will have to think on this more. "He said stroking his long beard. "Could you please help Sybill to her quarters. I will speak to you later."

Albus watch as Snape gently shook the divination Professor awake and slowly left the room as Sybill muttered something about a sore throat.

It was not often that Sybill had an actual prophecy so when she made one he was sure to listen. The problem was determining how to interpret the prophecy. He had heard several other prophecies she had made besides the first one she spoke that convinced him to give her a job. Some of her prophecies were completely trivial or had no relevance to him. Other prophecies held great interest to him personally warning him that one of the applicants for the Defense Again the Dark Arts position once was involved in human slave trade.

So how to interpret this prophecy, and did it hold any important information for him. Albus slowly made his way back up to his office trying to decode the new mystery.

* * *

The next two days were a mix of activity, students were constantly murmuring about The Shadow. Teachers and prefects seemed to harshly punish any student caught breaking the rules. Even The Twins kept a low profile.

Eventually breakfast rolled around and the time limit expired without any announcement being made. Everyone quietly ate breakfast all waiting for something to happen.

Sure enough Peeves swooped into the Great Hall. Oddly he was not laughing manically or bouncing and spinning around. He simply floated in holding another piece of paper.

"Another message from my friend The Shadow so listen up." Peeves proclaimed before reading." It seems that my friendly warning has been ignored. This is troubling because it would seem that the staff is ignoring the ideals that Hogwarts was founded on."

Peeves then paused as if waiting for something.

"Is that all you have to say Peeves. "Snape said from the staff table.

"Wait for it." Peeves replied, with a very evil little smirk on his face.

"Peeves please what is going on you are-."

"Wait for it." Peeves interrupted his voice slightly higher this time.

"HEADMASTER!" A shocked voice called from above.

"There it is!" Peeves chirped happily.

Floating through the wall close to the ceiling flew Professor Binns, rushing down towards the Head Table. Everyone eyed the obviously distraught spirit, as he waved what looked like a ghostly strip of cloth in his hand.

"LOOK!" He shrieked thrusting his hand at Dumbledore, shocking many that the ghost could speak in something other than the same boring drone.

"What is in Cuthbert?" The Headmaster asked adjusting his glasses slightly.

"It's the hem of my robe!" Binns said confusing many.

"What do you mean? I'm not sure I understand." Albus said.

"Someone wearing a black cloak came to me and grabbed a hold of me. I actually _felt _him touching my arm. Then he pulled a sword off of his back and cut the hem of my robe off before giving it to me." Binns said in panic.

Slowly the situation started to dawn on a few people that understood what the History of Magic Professor was trying to convey. At first only hushed whispers could be heard in the hall until a slowly growing laughter came from the floating from of Peeves.

"This is so much fun!" The poltergeist laughed a bit maliciously.

"Peeves what do you know about this?" Binns gasped in a panicked voice.

Peeves held the slip of parchment and continued to read. "In order to encourage the staff to uphold this school to the standards that it was founded on I am giving you this last friendly warning. I will graciously give you two weeks to start showing improvement in following the school rules or else Professor Binns will disappear."

The last statement was quickly followed by another loud gasp from Professor Binns and murmuring around the Hall. Professor Binns was demanding protecting form the Headmaster and the students were slowly getting louder when Peeves again spoke.

"As I said before I will not harm any living being. However the History of Magic Teacher is not alive and not protected by my agreement. Please understand that I do not enjoy doing this and a few small changes will be helpful to all concerned. Enjoy the rest of your day. Signed The Shadow. Peeves then dropped the parchments he was reading from and flew out of the Hall, leaving many bewildered students and staff.

* * *

Once again the Staff of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were meeting to discuss The Shadow. This time however a very distraught Professor Binns floated above a chair still clinging to the severed hem of his robe.

"Surely you don't intend to do nothing now that The Shadow has done this." Professor Flitwick asked calmly as the staff began their meeting.

"Yes you have to do something.!" Professor Binns yelled, again shocking everyone that he could speak in something other than a dull drone.

"Please keep calm, action without directing will not help us." Albus raised his hands to placate everyone.

"Well this is certainly more complicate than a simple prank. Whoever this Shadow is has powers I have never heard of." Professor Sprout said.

Dumbledore nodded." Yes that is very surprising. Please Curthbert is there anything else you could tell us that would be helpful."

The distraught ghost was fiddling with the scrap of ghostly cloth as he tried to recall anything helpful. "It happened so fast and I was so shocked by actually _feeling _something. He and I honestly can't be sure it was a he. Anyway The Shadow just appeared in my classroom and grabbed me above my wrist. He had a dark black cloak on that shadowed all of his face. Then he took a sword off of his back and I was so frightened I closed my eyes. Then all the sudden something was pushed into my hand and he let go of my wrist, when I opened my eyes he was gone and the hem of my robe was in my hand."

"That's all you can tell us. No discription or how tall this person was." Snape asked with an annoyed sigh.

"I-I can't be sure He just appeared right next to me and he was so opposing. Not all that tall maybe around five and a half foot tall. I might be overestimating. It just happened so fast."

"That's alright Curthbert but anything else you can remember would be helpful." Albus said with a sigh.

"So what kind of being can appear out of nowhere and carries a sword that can affect ghosts?" Professor Sprout asked out loud. "Spirits certainly are not my field of expertise."

"Its out of my knowledge too." Professor Kettleburn." Ghosts and other creatures of spirit a tough things to deal with. While I myself don't know any, I have heard of spells that will affect spirits but all of those simply banish or repel a ghost."

Silence filled the room as the staff looked between each other as if looking for the other to have an answer.

"Amazing." Professor McGonagall sighed. "This room is filled with some of the best minds in the world, masters in their respective fields and none of us know of anything that has just taken place in our very school."

"Now is not the time to get discouraged." Professor Dumbledore said. "Magic that can affect spirits is extremely rare, and while I have heard of some I myself have never heard anything like this."

"So we are still where we were before. While we may now know that The Shadow is real we don't really know anything about him." Professor Vector said. "However the question remains what are we going to do about the demands?"

The corners of the Headmaster's mouth dropped slightly. "Yes that is good question and one that has not become any easier."

"Albus I certainly hope you don't plan on doing nothing. Many of us agree with what The Shadow has said. A few simple changes as to how house points are distributed will not be a problem." Minerva said ignoring the dark look sent at her from Snape.

"I know of all your concerns about how some of the Slytherin House points are dealt with. I myself am not completely happy about." Dumbledore agreed. "However the Slytherins require a delicate hand, you all should know about the questionable conditions at their homes."

McGonagall did not look convinced. "How is the established point system helping these students someone who is taught questionable morals at home should not have those same ideas reinforced or even rewarded at school."

"You know it is not as simple as that Minerva." The Headmaster stated solemnly. "What would you have me do now? While it may be helpful to the school, should I give in to The Shadows demands and show the students that threats are a good way of achieving a goal?"

The Transfiguration teacher sank back in her seat with that statement.

"So we are still at a stalemate, doomed if we do and doomed if we don't" Flitwick said. "The shadow has at least one power none of us have even heard of. Simply giving into his demands would not be the best course of action. However if we do nothing I am inclined to believe that the School's current History Professor will disappear. So unless we find some way to protect Professor Binns or stop The Shadow I would hazard to guess that a new History Professor would be needed."

The ghostly professor whimpered quietly in his chair as Professor Sinistra spoke next.

"I see no easy way of protecting him from something we know so little about The Shadow and his powers. Hiding him would do little good because how would he be able to teach."

There were a few more moments of silence before everyone thoughts were interrupted by four ghosts floating through the door.

"Oh it seems we are a bit late. I told you we should have come sooner." Nearly Headless Nick said to the other House Ghosts.

"Is there anything I can help you with as you may see we are having a staff meeting." Professor Dumbledore said.

"Please excuse our intrusion Headmaster. "The Gray Lady said." But we believe we might be able to help you."

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(Author Notes) Alright I know this is a bit of a cliffy and rest assured that I will tie it all down at the beginning of the next chapter. However this seemed to be an alright ending to a difficult chapter and I did not want to have to write three more pages of staff meeting. So in the next chapter you can look forward to it beginning with more insights into the mind of Albus Dumbledore. This chapter is when I will start my major changes from the established canon. While there will be similarities this is a different Harry from canon so therefore there should be differences as well. So please don't form a mob and lynch me for the terrible cliffy.


	17. Unknown Uncertainties

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

(Author Notes) I wish to apologize. Its taken me too long to get this chapter out. There are many reasons for this, most of these I will not bore you with. These last few chapters have been kind of like filler chapters. They don't really move the plot along, only set up things for the plot. Its been fairly hard to write, but hopefully the next chapter will be easier. Also I have been getting some reviews about some mistakes I have made in my writing. Trust me I know that I make several mistakes but I always try to keep them as few as possible. I know that it will be different for each person but above all I do not want the mistakes to take away from the reading experience. So if you feel that the mistakes are distracting. I will endeavor to find myself a good beta reader. Which I have to tell you is very hard. Alright enough of me, enjoy.

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Dumbledore was deep in thought as he slowly paced around his office. The past few days had been vexing and frustrating for the Headmaster. Questions leading to more questions and less answers, puzzles that became more complex as one would attempt to solve them.

First and foremost was The Shadow and the amazing lack of information about the person in question. The Shadow's gender, age, race, powers, and purpose were all unknowns. The House ghosts had helped with some information that would help guide his thoughts but still so much was unknown.

It could be guessed at that The Shadow had been in the school since the beginning of the term, since that was when the ghosts had first _felt _something. That in and of itself was troubling, in general the idea of spirits feeling anything was unheard of. However, at least in this situation it seemed that the common knowledge concerning ghosts and spirits was wrong. Unless you explained it away as magic, it was still unknown as to how ghosts retained the ability to see and hear. Two out of five senses was actually quite an accomplishment for anything that lacked a nervous system.

However The Shadow seemed to break all the rules concerning ghosts. From what the House Ghosts had told them The Shadow was able to somehow cause them to feel. Dumbledore recalled what the Sir Nick had said about discovering a strange figure in the Library.

"It felt as if I were being squeezed or had a heavy weight on myself for just a moment, then the feeling was gone along with the cloaked figure both disappearing without a trace."

Albus sighed as he tried to slowly piece everything together. It was fairly reasonable to assume that the being that was seen in the Library was The Shadow. The descriptions matched and seeming the powers involving ghosts. While all the information the House Ghosts provided was nice, it did not lead to any new answers.

If The Shadow had been in the school since the beginning of the year what had he been doing all this time. All the information and likely possibilities painted an odd picture of The Shadow. Appearing at in the Library at night, possibly orchestrating school wide pranks, and then threatening a Professor in order to promote school rules. What kind of person or creature was this Shadow?

Then there were the similarities between The Shadow and The Janitor. The wards on Number four Privet Drive never registered any intruders or magical presence beside young Harry. Also the wards around Hogwarts would alert him to any intruders coming to Hogwarts. The wards guarding Hogwarts were excellent, it was incredibly hard to confuse or bypass them. While it could still be done, as was the case with Quirrell and the Troll. However for every other case the wards were still working perfectly. This was proven several time in the past few months, Albus had been alerted by the wards and had to intercept three separate reporters and ten well wishers all looking to meet Harry Potter. Unless someone specifically knew how to target the wards it was nearly impossible to confuse the wards for long, but both the wards around Hogwarts and Private Drive failed him in concern for The Janitor and The Shadow.

So many questions too little answers, if he had just a few answers he might be able to start building something. Was this a new sort of magic, that The Janitor and The Shadow could use? Were The Janitor and The Shadow the same being or separate? Were they even Human? Were they even affiliated with each other?

While all of these questions bounced around in his head there was still the matter of the recent prophecy occupying Albus's thoughts. While he could make some educated guesses he could not completely tie down the prophecy. "_Three Powers gather and Clash_" He thought. It could be guessed at the three powers were equal or almost equal to each other. Albus knew that Voldemort was somewhere nearby Hogwarts and_ consumed by darkness_ fitted him quite well. Then thinking along the lines of powers equal to Voldemort he immediate thought of himself. _Hidden in the light_ could represent himself although he was unsure at to why he would be hidden. Did that mean he should be stealthy with his actions, or should he hide himself for what was to come. The headmaster shook his head deciding to worry about it later. _Mysterious as the void _concerned him now. This could easily represent The Shadow. The Shadow was certainly mysterious and the void was another term for death, and whoever he was had powers over ghosts something that was certainly touched by death. However it was the implication that The Shadows powers could be equal to both Voldemort's and his own that concerned him.

In the end the prophecy was mostly vague and seemingly unhelpful. However chiefly it gave its warning. "Beware the tipping scales." Albus muttered aloud.

Tipping scales represented change or imbalance, and that could mean almost anything. To stop the scales from tipping he would have to prevent anything from changing and would be as easy as holding back the tide. Whatever change he should be cautious of could be any changes whatsoever. Maybe a change for the school as The Shadow wanted, or it could be to make sure the kitchen serve vegetable soup every lunch to avoid change. In the end it was all very confusing and unhelpful, and the Headmaster tried to not focus too much attention on it.

Although. there was something that kept drawing the Headmaster's attention. Something his mind kept coming back to, someone that seemed to be connected with everything and at the same time those connections were, vague and rather frail.

These connections could still be made though. The Shadow arriving at Hogwarts probably the same time as Harry. Both had strange unknown powers. There were also the undeniable similarities between The Janitor and The Shadow. While the Janitor was defiantly connected with Harry, the boy might not be connected with the Shadow.

Then the Headmaster's calculating mind thought of the irregularities. Harry was in the Great hall for breakfast at the same time The Shadow would have been with Binns. Albus had even check the noted delivered by Peeves just to make sure, and the handwriting was not at all similar to Harry's penmanship. So it was nearly impossible for Harry and The Shadow to be the same person. No matter how long he pondered the along the subject he could not come up with anything concrete. His thoughts would only go so far and then hit a dead end where following that line of thought further became impossible. It was extremely vexing for the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

* * *

The school was buzzing about what happened, everywhere you went conversations centered on The Shadow and Professor Binns. The ghostly professor had only attended one of the days classes and was not able to do much because he was always checking around him or being asked questions by curious students that were uninterested in history. Despite how pitiable the History teacher had become the majority of the school was unapologetically in favor of the idea of Professor Binns disappearing.

"Just think." Ron said, after ingesting a bite of food.. "We might get a new History of Magic Professor!"

"Ron how can you say that, its terrible what is happening." Hermione scolded Ron.

"You can't be serious Hermione! Binns is so boring he should be used at St. Mungos to help treat people with sleeping problems." Ron replied. "Am I right Harry?"

Before Harry could responded, Hermione spoke again. "If you actually paid attention in his class you would realize that History of Magic is a fascinating subject, and Harry agrees with me since he is one of the only other people that stays awake."

"Uh-" Harry uttered looking between the two of them. Harry happened to agree with Ron, but since he had Gigan taking notes for him it might look that he was involved in the class. "Honestly Hermione, Professor Binns is the most uninspiring teachers at the school. I can't respect someone who's job could easily be done by a recording."

"A recording might actually do a better job." Ron laughed.

"How can the both of you say such things." Hermione huffed. "He's still our teacher and I find what The Shadow is doing is terrible."

"Really cause he's our Hero." George said, as the twins leaned over the group of first years.

"Gives you a role-model to look up to." Fred agreed. "Causing school wide pranks-"

"That are so amazing they cancel classes-"

"Raising general mayhem-"

"and mischief-"

"Our new source of inspiration, The Shadow." The Twins chimed together.

While their little show caused laughter around the table. Hermione's face was affixed in extreme irritation.

"The Shadow is not a role-model, he needs to be stopped. What he is threatening to do is borderline criminal."

Harry was slightly taken back by the conviction in Hermione's voice, he had realized that some would view his actions badly, but Hermione seemed to be nearly enraged. While it was his intention to cause a major disruption he again wondered if threatening Binns was the best choice of action. He had spent a lot of time thinking before he acted. There had been very little bad consequences to his planned course of action.

If the school amended their ways, Binns would be left alone and everything was for the better. However if in two weeks nothing changed he would perform a Konso on Binns who would go to the Soul Society and The school should get a better History Professor. While resorting to threats might not have been the best option it did get the attention of the school staff, which is what he wanted.

Hermione continued her rant. "How would you feel if you switched places with Professor Binns he might be a ghost but he's still human."

"No he's not." Ron replied, with his cheeks full of food.

Hermione's neck snapped around. "Yes he is." She shot back.

"No he's not." Ron said again.

"Yes he is!" Hermione said louder this time.

"Help me out of this one George."

Everyone at the table looked over at the twins, causing them to role their eyes. "Alright Ickle Ronniekins, Since you are not learned enough to find the right words." George said.

"While we are still in full favor of The Shadow. The whole Ghost rights and everything is kinda gray territory. Technically ghosts are human, but technically they aren't. I don't know all the details but people have been arguing about it for a long long time. Ghost retain their emotions and memories, but does that mean they should retain the same rights as they had when they were still alive? Take this for instance Sometimes a nasty person dies and turns into really nasty ghost. Most of the time the only thing a ghost can do to harm you is yell at you and give you a bad case of chills, but that still is enough to become a nuisance. So while its rare there are people that can exorcize spirits, and kick a ghost out of whatever building they're in. Sometimes once they are kicked out they find somewhere new to haunt. Most of the time without a place to stay they soon disappear. Many people say that when they disappear they crossover, to wherever that is no-one knows."

Fred continued the quick lesson on ghosts. "Other say that when you exorcize them and they disappear, they die. But how can you kill something that is already dead? Really I don't know enough about the arguments and theories to decided, and honestly I don't care to find out."

Their little group fell silent after that, Hermione looked as if she wanted to say something but instead her shoulders sank she seemed to go into deep thought.

As the meal ended the Headmaster stood up and clapped his hands getting everyone's attention.

"As I am sure you are all aware of the threat on our school History of Magic Professor." Professor Dumbledore said. "None of you need to worry about it, rest assured that here at Hogwarts we are most interested in the wellbeing of everyone and everything in our care. That being said I want you all to be on the lookout for someone wearing a large black cloak as this person in not welcome in our school. If you see this person please do not try and stop them simply tell the nearest prefect or staff member and we will take care of it."

Dumbledore finished and sat back down. Harry found it odd that the way he spoke seemed to have a air of finality to it. As if the situation was already settled and done with. A small twitch around the corners of Harry's mouth was the only outward sign of his thoughts. After all the next move was not his to make.

* * *

The next few days seemed to return to the same routine, except for a few changes Professor Binns was regularly teaching his classes but it there always seemed to be someone around him many different prefects seemed to always be with him. Although they did have to change the guard quite often for a more alert watch-person. Once at night Harry silently tracked the History Professor down just to see if any thing had changed and found him being escorted by Filch the Caretaker.

However the biggest surprise happened in Potions class about one week into the two week grace period. Potions class seemed to be just like every other lesson before it. They came in, sat down, Snape came in and evasively insulted their collective intelligence, and then gave them the instructions for the lesson.

Today they were making the Sun Bane Balm, which was basically the magical equivalent for sun block. Just like every potion lesson Neville managed to somehow cause his potion to go wrong in a spectacular way. It was anyone's guess how he managed to make his potion boil when the only time heat was used in its creation was at the end when you had to flash heat the balm to seal it into its final state. But never the less he was able to ruin his potion and like clockwork Professor Snape descended upon the poor boy berating him for his idiocy. It was just like every Potions class until.

"It's a miracle that you haven't killed us all yet with something you've incorrectly mixed." Snape said as Neville cowered under his gaze. "If you ever get poisoned and are forced to brew an antidote I would suggest you simply relax and enjoy however long you have left. If you actually tied to brew an antidote you would only kill yourself faster with whatever you made."

It was all normal until.

"Ten points from-" Snape stopped himself, his body was all tensed up and he had a look of pent-up anger on his face. Then he took a breath and his shoulders sunk and he spoke again in an even tone. "Mr. Longbottom, for your homework you will have to write a list of the Sun bane balm's ingredients and each of their magical properties. You will also make a list of ten differences between the Dendrobium orchid and the Snowdrop flower."

"Y-ye-yes Professor S-Snape." Neville Stuttered.

As the class was let out once again a phantom of a smile appeared on Harry's lips.

Slowly stories of Snape filtered through the school. It seemed as if Snape had stopped being as blatant in his favoritism toward Slytherin. While there were no confirmed reports of Snape rewarding points to any other house besides Slytherin he had stopped taking points for simple mistakes or answering questions wrong. Along with each story of Snape there was also a whispered mention of The Shadow. It seemed that any mention of The Shadow was a taboo topic, if you were overheard by a teacher or a prefect you were sure to receive a suspicious gaze. All the authority figures in the school were still on high alert each watching out for any sign of The Shadow, but still no luck.

Eventually the deadline rolled around, Breakfast in the Great Hall was normal the morning post arriving like clockwork. Again fluttering between the multitude of nocturnal raptors another Hell Butterfly flew down to alight on Harry's extended digit. The Voice of Harry's Sensei filled his mind as the insect gave Death's message.

"_Harry I am glad to hear that there has been some changes for the better, but I must warn you not to overextend yourself. While your plan may be for the benefit of the entire school remember that every action has a consequences. Some consequences may be long lasting or impossible to foresee. Change will never take place if nothing is moved. However be cautious, things can be more fragile than they appear. Be observant and keep in mind that you are there to learn."_

"So what's the news?" Hermione asked from across the table.

"What do you mean." Said Harry.

"Well the butterfly comes during the morning post and you space out when it touches you, So your obviously getting a message of some sort."

"Oh, and how do you know that I am not simply enjoying the strange sensation of a butterfly on my finger." Harry replied flicking his finger and sending the Hell Butterfly fluttering away.

Hermione gave him a piercing gaze but did not say anything.

Harry had decided not to perform a konso on Professor Binns. Although there had not been that much change he did not want to force the issue. His intention all along had been to change the school for the better, if he needed to do that slowly so be it. He also needed to keep in mind that he was at Hogwarts to learn and while it might go against his base instincts causing as little disturbance as possible to everyone involved would be for the better. In the end Binns was still a terrible teacher and should be replaced, but for now maybe it was best not to force too much change too fast.

The day eventually came to an end and Binns still attended each of his classes although he was under guard by another member of staff the entire day. Even the Headmaster watched over the ghost for a while. However the day ended and two weeks were over, and Binns had yet to disappear.

* * *

"Enter." Dumbledore spoke before the person on the other side of his door could knock.

Professor Snape slowly entered with a slightly annoyed look on his face, he had yet to find out how the Headmaster was able to do that.

"You called for me Headmaster." Snape said.

"Yes. The deadline has passed and I wanted to hear your opinion on the matter." Albus said. Many people would think it odd that he often chose Snape as a sounding board for ideas, but in the end Snape could provide a radically different viewpoint. It also helped that despite his personality he had a brilliant mind.

Immediately a frown appeared on his face, the subject was not something that pleased him. After all It had because of The Shadow that Snape had an earlier conversation with the Headmaster where he had told him to change his normal habits concerning house points.

"I think its ridicules and was foolish to put stock in anything regarding The Shadow." Snape said grumpily.

"Now Severus, you know that I could not ignore the other Heads of House. If I had there would be dissention among the staff. They have kept quiet until now, but with outside influence they would not remain silent." Dumbledore said.

"You know that many of the parents of the students in my house are only comfortable sending their children to Hogwarts knowing how I treat my house."

"Yes, I know this, also I am sure to get several owls complaining about the change. However I am sure to receive a lot less owls from parents of students in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. Parents that threaten to remove there children because of your treatment." Dumbledore replied.

Professor Snape huffed. "That may be, but in the end you know its meaningless posturing. No one would withdraw their child from an illustrious school like Hogwarts."

"Yes. However I don't want to simply rely on the reputation of Hogwarts. Please don't think of this as a punishment. You should not need to use intimidation to teach."

"Are you serious? I have to deal with empty headed children and uncontrollable teenagers, that are mixing potentially lethal magical ingredients. Often I need to get them to concentrate before they kill themselves." Severus shot back.

"And you only need to ensure the concentration of students outside of your house?" Dumbledore asked rhetorically. "Anyway I did not bring you here to talk about house points. I want your opinion on The Shadow."

Snape paused. "Its hard to say, we know so little about The Shadow. With of the reports of strange shadowy figures and the seeming ability to suddenly disappear, The Shadow could still be in the castle or could be long gone. Its hard to draw any conclusions about The Shadow's character or purpose. It could be guessed at that he or she needs to remain secret for some reason, probably for more freedom and less consequences concerning any of his actions. It might be that The Shadow is a student or is protecting a student. Secrecy would allow protection from a distance that no one would be able to anticipate. If this is The Shadow's purpose the student in question would most likely not be in Slytherin "

Dumbledore nodded agreeing each hypotheses "What concerns me the most is The Shadows ability to manipulate ghosts. Do you know of any magic that could give someone this ability?"

"I know of some dark magic that claims to affect the soul, but I know of nothing that could affect a ghost in the same method as what was used on Binns." Snape said. "I've heard that the Ministry of Magic employs a group of wizards in the Department of Mysteries. These Unspeakables are trained in exorcism or to control spirits."

Albus steepled his fingers together, his face taking on a look of deep concentration. After a few moments he seemed to be finished with his contemplation. "Many of our problems seem to stem from our lack of information. We need to shed more light on The Shadow. Perhaps its time to take action and gather some information."

XXXXXXXXX

(Author Notes) I was reading several Harry Potter stories to get some inspiration and I noticed a reoccurring theme. Why does it always seem that the goblins of Gringotts have a "Solve Everything Button". Dumbledore manipulating your life. Goblins tell you that not only are you emancipated, but are the heir to Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Merlin to boot. Because you are the heir to each of the founders you legally own Hogwarts and are the single richest person in Magical Britain if not the world.

Or

Problem with abusing relatives Goblins show that your dead parents will specifically said that you were never ever supposed to be under their care. Causing you to either taken care of by much more caring and companionate individuals, who will most likely have a daughter that will eventually become your girlfriend. Or be emancipated at a very young age, which has the added bonus of getting around that pesky underage magic thing.

I am not saying that stories that use this plot device are bad its just its often taken too far. How many people set up their wills and have a list of ten to twenty different people that are to take care of their child, and then specifically say that a relatively close member of the family should never touch their child?

Alright I'm done with that rant.


	18. Merry Mysteries

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

(Author Notes) Yay I found myself a decent beta reader. Maybe this will mean that I will be more expedient in getting these chapters out.

XXXXXX

The weeks slowly passed, and the weather took a nasty dive into lower temperatures. Considering that parts of the castle could get extremely cold Harry could definitely see the advantage to having robes part of the school uniform.

"H-how come your not f-freezing like the rest of us H-harry?" Dean asked.

Harry was walking with a group of other students in the hallways. Dean, Seamus, Lavender and Parvati were leaving Transfiguration and heading for Lunch, while Hermione had gone to the Library and Ron had headed back to the dorms.

"Yeah, does it have something to do with your special magic?" Lavender said in a whisper.

"No," Harry shook his head. "Its just the warming charm."

"The warming charm? We haven't learned that yet." Dean said." How do you know it?"

"When I noticed the weather getting bad I just looked up a spell to help. I found the warming charm and practiced it for a few days till I got it down." Harry replied.

"Just like that, you make it sound so easy." Parvati said, some envy creeping into her voice. "Isn't that a second year spell?"

"If it will help deal with this cold who cares what year spell it is. You've got to teach us Harry, please." Seamus begged, and was soon followed by the rest of the Gryffindors all pleading to be taught the warming charm.

"Oh no." Harry said, putting up his hands to create space between them. "I'm not doing that again. Ron already conned me into teaching him. It was all fine until he lit his sleeve on fire. So if you want to learn go ask him. He knows the incantation, but I will not be held responsible if you burn the castle down."

"Aww come on Harry, pwetty pwease." Lavender asked, giving him her best puppy eyes. "I just know you would be a much better teacher than Wonald Weasly.

"Oh no, not that look." Harry gasped and shut his eyes turning away dramatically. After a few seconds he opened his eyes again and saw each of them giving him puppy eyes. Dean and Seamus weren't that good but it seemed Parvati was an excellent actress, her face seemingly on the verge of tears.

"Ahh, No I can't, must resist" Harry said, his voice stressed and his body tensing up.

Harry then sighed deeply and relaxed his shoulders, while the rest of the groups faces lit up sensing victory. "Ahh ok, successfully resisted, your puppy eyes will not longer work on me."

"Awww." The other four all chimed in disappointment.

Harry just chuckled and took a few quick steps away from the group. "Come on lets get down to breakfast." He said leaving the group to catch up.

* * *

Eventually the Holidays came around and Professor McGonagall passed around a list for students staying in Hogwarts for Christmas break. Oddly enough Harry had to pause and consider his options. If he went home he would have more freedom to go to the Soul Society, but then he would have to deal with his relatives, and that was not something he wanted to do.

"Cool." Ron said as he saw Harry add his name to the list. "I'm also staying for Christmas. My family is heading to Romania to see my older brother and its just easier if we stay at school. I was hoping that you would be staying too."

"Yeah I wouldn't want to mess with my relatives lovely holiday, the fact that I'm a wizard does not fit into their perfect world." Harry said grudgingly. While nobody knew the details, Harry had given enough information that it was fairly well known around school that the relationship with his muggle relatives was stressed.

"For muggles they seem to be quite smart. I wouldn't want you around either Potter." Draco Malfoy said from behind them.

"Get lost Malfoy." Ron said hotly, his body tensing up.

Harry put a hand on his temperamental friends shoulder to calm him. "Wow Draco. I have to be honest, you have some impressive characteristics. You were no where near us, and yet you somehow were able to listen in on our conversation despite all the other noises in the Great Hall."

"What is you point? Are you jealous of my hearing as well as the fact that my parents didn't get themselves killed like yours?" Malfoy said, as Crabbe and Goyle crossed their arms beside him trying to make themselves seem as threatening as possible. If the rumors were true then the two thickset Slytherins were itching for a rematch with Harry. Apparently the two of them had taken their defeat as personal insults, and they would not rest till they got the opportunity to redeem themselves.

"No, not at all jealous Draco. I was just thinking there seems to be a great contradiction going on. With your great hearing it seems that you are unable to listen. How many times have I told you to leave me alone?" Harry asked rhetorically.

"Why would I listen to someone as worthless as you scar-head?" Draco said maliciously.

"The way he says that I would say he was jealous. Wouldn't you agree Harry?" Terry Boot said as he passed by Malfoy and sided up to Harry.

"I think you might have something there Terry." Harry said to the Ravenclaw.

"This is none of your business Boot." Malfoy spat.

Terry glanced over at the Slytherin but before he could say anything Harry spoke. "You might have something there. I mean how many other people can claim to simply receiving a scar after being hit by the Killing Curse?"

The Ravenclaw nodded. "It could also be that he feels threatened by you, and you not fitting in with the whole pureblood superiority thing."

"Don't ignore me." Malfoy growled.

"Oh, please excuse me Draco I did not realize that you were still there." Harry said in a deceptively cheerful tone. "But seriously the teachers are looking this way, lets try not to draw their attention."

Malfoy glanced up to the Head Table and noticed that Harry was speaking the truth. With a deep frown he walked away followed by his two henchmen.

"Thanks Terry but you did not need to get involved in this." Harry said.

"Its alright I already got on his bad side a few days ago." Terry said rolling his eyes. "He's such a git. Malfoy came to me and basically said he would give me the privilege of allowing me to help him with his Transfiguration homework. Then he went into this thing that because I was a half-blood that it would be in my best interest to form connections with esteemed members of society."

Terry's circumstances was quite common among students at Hogwarts. Terry was a half-blood with a pure-blood father and a muggle mother. The main line of the Boot family was actually a pure-blood family.

The situation started to get complicated once you started to deal with who was what within the family. Terry's grandfather was a fairly influential pure-blood that owned a fairly prominent fabric company dealing in the rarer types of cloth such as Dragon skin, Acromantula silk or Demiguise fur. His Grandfather would be considered the head of the family while Terry's father was the youngest of three sons born in the family. So while it was frowned upon for him to marry a muggle it would not take away the family's pure-blood status. As long as the heir married a pure-blood then the family would keep their respected pure-blood title.

The entire blood status was mostly ridiculous in Harry's opinion but after a bit of research and some conversations with a few friendlier pure-bloods Harry could understand their position. Once you got down to it much of it stemmed from fear and human nature.

Humans in general, which includes both muggles and wizards fear that which they do not understand. For the early civilizations of the world wizards were either vilified or deified. Those wizards that were not killed by fearful muggles were often worshiped as gods or made into priests or medicine-men. Any tension between the two groups could easily be understood when you compared their differences.

Even a weak wizard's feeble magic would be terrifying and wondrous on a battlefield where most opponents were restricted to hand to hand combat. Again there was the striking difference if you looked at the life expectancy for the two groups. For centuries a muggle would be considered lucky if he saw his fiftieth birthday, while a wizard could easily reach a hundred, which often astounded non-magicals.

The mutual mistrust between the two groups was not all simply because of differences and unknowns. Much of it was earned because of their actions towards each other. It was not uncommon that a wizard might enjoy tormenting or tricking muggles that knew nothing of magic, lording their power over foolish and ignorant muggles. On the other side, it was not uncommon for muggles to kidnap young witches and wizards for various reasons, perhaps to use them as solders or to somehow try and convert their power to aid themselves.

As time passed the muggle and wizard relations changed as well. Slowly wizards started to isolate themselves away from the rest of the world. Small communities of magical people started to cloister themselves away in places that would be hard to reach by normal means of travel, perhaps marshes or deep woods. Those wizards or witches that did not seclude themselves eventually found themselves targets of more and more persecution that would eventually lead to the famous witch hunts.

Strangely enough wizards were partially to blame for the increase in prejudice. With the increase in their isolation as did the mystique surrounding them. While before it was simply uncommon to see wizards, it became incredibly rare to ever see one. Eventually muggles forgot how wizards were priests and mysterious healers and only remembered the sinister acts done upon them. So the fear and mistrust grew until possessing magical abilities became a crime punishable by death.

Even before the Statute of Secrecy was established wizards had all but disappeared from the rest of the world. Magicals and muggles split away from each other, neither group having any dealings with the other. Slowly the methods used to separate the two cultures became so advanced that it really did seem that wizards and muggles lived in different worlds.

Now and days the tables seemed to have changed for wizards. Children that grew up in the Wizarding World know little of muggles and their culture. Young wizards and witches are told stories about the dangerous muggles that would hunt down and burn every witch and wizard they could find. Any wizard brave enough to venture into muggle society would find themselves surrounded by strange and potentially dangerous new technology. Instead of muggles fearing the strange wizards it was the wizards that grew fearful of muggles.

Even with new unknowns about the non-magical world Many wizards did not know how precarious their position was. Most still viewed muggles savage and uneducated mongrels. This was mostly the root of muggle-born bigotry. Wizards had seen themselves as superior for so long that they could not contemplate anything else. They did not see the truth that was right before them. Muggles easily outnumbered wizards a million to one. The magical shields that could easily deflect a swing of a sword or a volley of arrows would be severely tested by a fully automatic rifle.

The Statute of Secrecy that was once a simple means to protect the Wizarding World became their one and only lifeline. Upholding the Statute of Secrecy became the Ministry of Magic's main purpose. This added yet another layer to muggle-born prejudice. Each muggle-born presented a new potential leak in The Statute of Secrecy. So many wizards that knew about the risks that muggle-borns presented did not want to associate with them. If somehow The Statute of Secrecy did break who's side would muggle-borns chose? Would you want to hire a potential security risk for a job in the government? These were the reasons why there were so few job opportunities within the Wizarding World for muggle-borns.

However this caused many muggle-born to grow outraged at their treatment. Some even going so far as to deliberately try and expose the Wizarding World. This of course simply enforced the arguments of pure-blood bigots.

Most muggle-born did not lash out because of their treatment. There were still ways to be accepted into wizarding society, even if the two most common ways were to marry into an already established wizarding family or getting lucky. However this of course was an uncommon occurrence and most muggle-born returned back to the non-magical world after their training.

It really did not help that generally muggle-born received poorer grades than pure-bloods and half-bloods, again reinforcing the bigotry. It likely stemmed from culture shock, something that would be common knowledge in the Wizarding World would be completely new to a muggle-born. Because of these sometimes simple differences a muggle-born would have to study twice as hard just to understand lessons because of wizarding jargon.

Harry really did not know where he stood as far as blood status. He was a half-blood, but there were technically different levels of half-blood. Since his mother was still a witch he was seen in a much better light compared to someone who's mother or father was a muggle. In the end he really did not care about the issue. It did not matter where you were or who you were, people were still people no matter where you looked. Harry often got to see people when all of their walls came crumbling down, when their last protections disappeared. That is when a person really showed who they were. A frightened and terrified person could easily turn become angry and violent. At the same time he had seen people control themselves and remain calm even in unknown stressful situations. Perhaps that is what separated humans from animals, the ability to control your own base instincts and emotions.

When the Holidays started Harry spent most of his time with Ron. He had to admit that he was enjoying the other boy's company. Ron had slowly been changing since the beginning of the year. Since Hermione had started to join him in the library eventually so did Ron, when before he would never be seen there. However that seemed to set off the flood gates as many students from their year would congregate around them. While they had not compared grades it was obvious that Harry and Hermione were doing the best in classes, and only a few Ravenclaw students could match them in the theory part of classes.

Because of Ron, Harry did not get as much time for research and study as he had planned. However that really did not bother him. Ron seemed to become a different person when it was just the two of them. Harry guessed that Ron could relax when there were less people around. There was no one to compete against nobody to which he had to be compared to. It was nice, they would experiment with cooking and toasting food by the common-room fire as Ron told stories about his large family.

If he were honest Harry was a little jealous of Ron. Just from some of the things he said Harry could already imagine Ron's family. They seemed ten times more interesting the Dursleys. . The stories he told were almost too good to be true. No matter how lovely Ron described his upbringing, Harry was not foolish to think that it was perfect. There were sure to be some tough times he had not told him about, but just from how he described it Harry could tell that it was very different from his relatives. Maybe on first inspection the Dursleys lifestyle was wonderful, but once you pulled away the gilded exterior you would see the unpleasant truth. Once again Harry thanked his lucky stars that his sensei was in his life. Without Death Harry could easily see himself as someone in desperate need of therapy.

* * *

Eventually Christmas day rolled around as Harry sleepily awoke to the sound of Ron's rumbling snores. He had decided to stay in the dorms for the last several nights. Slowly but surely he was becoming more and more visible, it had gotten to the point that he no longer knew if he was completely visible or not. So he could not move around Hogwarts as freely as he had before. Now he not only had to worry about the ghost seeing him, now it was the staff, students and perhaps even the paintings that might report him. Strangely enough it almost seemed harder to sneak around with less people in the castle. Groups of people seemed to be less observant then a singular person walking alone.

Harry slowly opened his eyes and sat up, causing the blankets to fall from his upper body allowing the colder air to hit him. He gave a great yawn and stretch that seemed to disturb the only other person in the room. With a loud snort Ron shot upright in bed.

"Its Christmas!" Ron exclaimed. "Merry Christmas Harry, come on we've got presents."

Harry look down at the end of his bed and saw a modest pile of presents at the foot of his bed. Ron immediately started tearing into his pile of gifts as Harry pick up the top parcel wrapped in brown paper. Harry opened what seemed to be a hand carved wooden flute from Hagrid. Harry slowly made his way through the festively colored packages. Hermione got him some chocolate frogs, as did Dean, Hanna, and Terry. Many of his friends scattered around the houses got him sweets of some kind. Daphne Greengrass from Sytherin got him some Bertie Bott's Every Flavored beans, with a little note saying that if anyone asked why she got him a gift that she was simply wishing that all the beans were nasty flavors. Neville got him a remembrall, Harry did not know if it as a new remembrall or simply re-gifting the one from his gran. Harry really did not care because Neville had told him that whenever he ever remembered to check the remembrall it always showed up red, and he could never remember what he might have forgotten.

He also got a note from his relitives with a fifty pence piece taped to it. Harry gave the coin to Ron after he expressed amazement at the silver misshapen coin.

"Look's like Mum made you a Weasley sweater." Ron said pointing to a lumpy parcel

Harry opened the package to find a lovely green hand knitted sweater.

"Green?" Ron questioned "Oh well even if it's a Slytherin color I think I would rather have that than maroon."

"Haven't you told your mom that you don't like maroon?" Harry asked.

"Yeah but when you have so many children you start to run out of choices."

Harry reached for the last large package and as soon as he touched it he could feel something incredibly different. There was spiritual energy surrounding it. Picking up the package Harry unwrapped it carefully. As soon as he made a sizeable opening a silvery material slithered onto his lap. Slowly running his hands over the cloth Harry examined it. It was far smoother than silk and the same spiritual energy dully radiated from it. It was not the spiritual energy that caused him to pause, it was more a questions as to why that spiritual energy would be bound up into a cloak. After all the spiritual energy was something that he was very familiar with, it was the spiritual energy of his sensei Death.

"Whoa!" Ron blurted out interrupting Harry's ponderings. "That's an invisibility cloak! Go ahead try it on."

Harry was still uncertain about the strange cloth but if Ron was correct it might answer some questions. Cautiously Harry wrapped his arm in the material and sure enough his limb vanished.

"I knew it, who gave it to you?" Ron asked.

"Don't know." Harry answered also very curious of the answer.

"Maybe there is a note or something."

Harry looked around and just as Ron guessed there was a very small note inside.

"_You're father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was time to return it to you. Use it well._"

This only raised more questions. Why did his father own something that seemed to have been imparted with Death's spiritual energy? Was this the only this invisibility cloak like this or were all invisibility cloaks somehow the same? Why would his father loan this cloak to someone? There were lots of questions and very few answers. However, he knew of somewhere that he could get those answers and if he was lucky he would find out tonight.

Christmas Dinner was very pleasant with so many students at home all the staff and remaining students sat together at one table. The food was spectacular and the magical Christmas crackers made it even better. Harry had just finished opening a cracker that gave him his own set of wizards chess, when a hell butterfly fluttered down from somewhere in the ceiling. Harry presented a finger to the insect which it settled on and delivered its quick message.

"_Meet me in the forbidden forest south of the castle at eleven-o'clock_"

Just as soon as the message was delivered the butterfly flew off, leaving the Boy-Who-Lived with the rest of the table looking at him. Harry tired to fake nonchalance and go back to eating his desert.

"Mr. Potter?" A rough voice said questioningly.

Harry looked toward the sound of the voice and saw the Care of Magical Creatures Professor Kettleburn.

It's just tugging at my curiosity and since there are so few of us here I was just wondering if you could answer a question for me?"

Harry had a good idea as to what the question was but not wanting to seem rude he answered. "I can try Professor."

Professor Kettleburn smiled stretching an ugly burn scar on the side of his face. :"I was just curious about the extraordinary insect that was just on your finger. For one I have never seen a species like it and to be able to reach the castle in late December is something that very few magical insects would be able to accomplish."

Harry's mind raced trying to think of an appropriate answer. The truth would be out of the question and it would be difficult coming up with a believable complete fabrication, so he decided for a half truth.

"Not completely sure it's been around for as long as I can remember. It seems that it's always checking up on me to make sure I'm alright."

"How do you know it's there to check up on you?" Kettleburn asked.

"I just do." Harry shrugged childishly, leaving much of the staff looking at him with a curious look.

Eventually the rests of dinner was completed with the teachers and students talking about everything from the weather to individual grades.

At 15 minutes till 11 Harry stealthily popped a soul candy causing his Soul form to be released. quickly he turned around to face his body. Placing one finger in front of his mouth to silence Gigan, Harry whispered "Follow me, quietly." The young soul reaper strode over to his trunk and pulled out the invisibility cloak that he had received from Christmas.

"Put this on." Harry said handing the Cloaked to Gigan.

Gigan obediently follwed the command and disappeared from sight.

"Hmmm." Harry mused to himself. The cloaked was quite interesting, just like with his normal eyes the cloaked hid the wearer from sight. Then there was the spiritual energy surrounding the cloth, It was so suttle that unless he was very close to it he would not even notice that it was there.

The Apprentice of Death contemplated bringing the cloak along with him to see Death. Surely he would be able to answer the question as to why his spiritual pressure was wrapped around this object. After a few more moments of thought he decided against it. He did not know enough about the cloak, perhaps bringing the cloak to Death could cause something bad to happen. It was much safer to leave it alone till he knew more.

Harry turned back to Gigan. "Put that back and go to sleep I will return shortly." Harry passed by Agrona her perch on the way to the window, she had her beak tucked in a wing and was sleeping softly. Quietly opening the window Harry leapt through the small opening. On the other side of the window Harry turned around while seemingly standing on air and closed the window to prevent more cold air from getting inside. Defying gravity, Harry leapt away towards the Forbidden Forest each bound carrying him over the castle. Not long after Harry was setting down at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. All of his senses stretched to the limit Harry made his way in searching for his mentor. Suddenly a bright light appeared from nowhere, Harry shielded his eyes as a Senkaimon opened before him. A dark figure became silhouetted against the light as Death stepped through.

Harry gave his teacher a respectful bow, before saying. "Good evening sensei, its very nice to see you."

"Hello Harry, It very nice to see that you are well. I have something for you" Death said while handing Harry a small black sack.

"Thank you Sensei." Harry said taking the surprisingly heavy little bag. Swiftly undoing the ties on the bag Harry opened the sack and peered at the contents. Inside were four rectangular stone blocks.

"I know its nothing new, I felt it wise for you to possess your own set of barrier stones." Death said.

"Yes sensei, I am sure I will find a good use for them soon."

Barrier stones were made of a mix of special minerals that were used in many kido barriers. They were quite useful they could be used to enhance healing to restricting passage for both the living and the dead. While Harry had previously been trained in their used he had never carried a set with him. In truth there really hadn't been a need for them. But with all the people and spirits at Hogwarts he was sure they would show there usefulness.

"I kind feel bad I haven't gotten you anything, and I have no idea what I could get you."

In the shadow of his cowl the corners of Death's mouth raised slightly. "Trust me Harry, just your simple presence is a gift enough to me."

A large smile appeared on Harry's face upon hearing those words. "I'm glad to hear you say that, and I am always happy to help you in anyway I can."

"Of course." Death replied in his deep voice.

"Your gift is not the only interesting thing I received. I got very strange cloak that maybe you could answer a few questions about."

"Really?" Death replied questioningly. "How so."

* * *

While Death and his apprentice were having their conversation Dumbledore was in his office this thoughts centered on the same subject. It had taken him a long time to decide to return the Invisibility cloak to Harry. The truth of the matter was that he did not know if it was the most fortuitous time to give the cloak to Harry. However the possible reward tempted the Headmaster to into action.

After a bit of extremely complicated magic he had cast a spell on the cloak. After the cloak was put on the spell would very subtlety guide Harry to a special location in the school. Because of the special nature of the cloak it was nearly impossible to place any spells upon it. It was only thanks to his wand that he was able to enchant the cloak at all, and even with that his spells might only last a few days. However a few days should hopefully be enough for his plan to come to fruition, after all what child would not want to test out an object for such magnificence.

What Albus wanted to know was Harry's deepest desire. If he could know that then being able to understand and guide the boy would be much easier. However right now he was stuck watching a small gadget that puffed out different colors of some depending on how close the cloak was to the destination.

Suddenly the Headmaster's thoughts were interrupted when the fire in his fireplace flamed green. Out stepped three individuals each clothed in midnight black satin robes that shimmered in the light. Each had a wide brimmed wizards hat pulled low on their heads which obscured much of there features. However from what could be seen there were two men and one woman.

"Ahh you've arrived, Thank you so much for coming here on such short notice. I am sorry if requesting your services was of any bother, however what needs to be done would best be done when most of the students were at home." Dumbledore said smiling at each of them.

"Quite alright, Headmaster. Its actually nice to be of service to the same school that taught me." Said one of the men. His voice betrayed that he was quite elderly, and a slightly stooped figure reinforced the conclusion.

"As am I." Said the other man, with a strong voice. He was quite tall, towering over everyone else in the room, and his broad shoulders gave him an imposing visage.

"Good evening Headmaster." Said the woman in the group.

She sounded fairly young, and had an accent that suggested that she was born somewhere in Asia. The visible braid of long blue black hair added to that guess.

"While I may not have gone to this school, regardless the Department of Mysteries is at your service."

XXXXXXXX

(Author Notes) It seems that my last author notes about how I thought it was strange for parents to make a will putting 20 possible caretakers and a banning close relatives from ever getting near said child was not completely well received. While I cannot say I would be able to understand a parent's views, because of my lack of children. I am simply stating that I often see fictional wills for the Potters that seem to take it overboard so that they can show that everything in the will was ignored by Dumbledore.

Also it seems that a lot of reviewers want Ron to be gone from my Harry's life. I would like to hear your opinions about Ron. Yes he can be annoying with his jealousy, that is why I have lessened his role a bit. However it seems that is not good enough for some people either way a generally good or a secretly bad Ron I can work with just want your opinions.


	19. Recalling and Reflections

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

(Author Notes) Sorry it took me so long to get this next chapter out but I have a life and other hobbies besides writing. If I were getting paid to do this I would be as awesome as other writers on this site and pop chapters out once a week, but I'm not. Thank you all for your reviews, many of you have given constructive criticism and ideas that have helped shape me into a better author. Just so people know the chapter starts with a flashback.

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_From Underneath an elder tree Death looked out. Before him churned a river of deceptive danger. The river had claimed several lives recently. Several travelers had tried to cross it without success, swept down stream towards deadly sharp rocks. The river was seemingly shallow enough that many thought they could fiord the river safely. However the bottom of the river would not give any firm footing and the current was just swift enough to spell your doom. _

_There in the fading light of twilight Death waited patiently for three brothers to pass by. It was not long before they approached only to be stopped at the waters edge. Death was glad for the shade provided by the elder tree was dark enough to conceal him. Because had he been out in the open Death was sure that they would be able to see him._

_Somehow in a strange twist of fate or by wild luck each of the three brothers had heightened Spirit energy. While this alone would not have been a problem they were not normal humans. As wizards they could already see ghosts, it was their added ability to see all spirits that it became troubling. The first problems started when the love of the second brother died and her soul stayed in the world of the living for a few days before the new spiritual order drew her spirit to the Soul Society._

_The brother's naturally inquisitive minds started asking questions. What was different between the newly dead and ghosts? Why was it that the souls of some lasted days while others only lasted hours before suddenly vanishing. Could all souls be made to stay longer, and if they could stay longer could they be brought back?_

_Through years of experimentation they used their magic to attempt to twist and alter souls they got their hands on. At first they had no success, for only rare and powerful magic could affect a soul. However with enough attempts they started to get things right, finding ways that their magic could affect spirits. The brothers found ways to bind spirits in place, creating barriers and wards that would not allow the dead through, even finding a way to use their magic to reinforce their bodies so they could grasp and hold a spirit just like you could any living being. _

_There was nothing necessarily wrong with what they were doing, although many would argue it was unnatural. Death did not even know of their activities until their last experiment where they had inadvertently destroyed a soul. Death did not know if this was an accident or on purpose but their actions had effectively caused a soul to cease its existence. _

_That is what had alerted him to the brothers actions. It did not take long for Death to track down the cause of the disturbance. It did however take him a while to decide on what to do about the situation._

_It all lead to that moment as Death watched from under an Elder tree. The three brothers all drew their wands and steadily built a bridge across the river using conjured stone blocks. However just as the brothers reached the apex of their bridged Death executed a quick flash step and dramatically appeared in front of them. _

_Death took a deep breath as he began his plan. "Impressive." Death said. "This river has claimed many, I compliment your skills to avoid the fates of those that passed before you._

_The brothers looked at the figure warily as he stood in the air a foot from the edge of their bridge. It was the youngest to speak first asking the question that each of them were thinking. _

"_Who are you stranger?" Ignotus Peverell asked._

"_I have been called by many names in many languages." The figure answered with an amused tone in his deep voice. "However you would know me best as Death."_

_Each of the brothers instantly stiffened and the oldest, Antioch Peverell brandished his wand and pointed it at Death._

"_Why have you come here?" Antioch demanded. "Come to take our souls?"_

"_Calm yourself, I cannot take the souls of those that still live. You nor your brothers need fear me." Death answered, raising his hands in a placating manner. "I am simply surprised that you are not dead. This river has claimed many and your skill at avoiding its dangers and therefore avoiding my grasp has impressed me. In fact I am so impressed that I feel you should be rewarded."_

_It was then that the middle brother Cadmus spoke up. "Rewarded? How so, what would we be granted?"_

_Death smiled at the brother's obvious greed. "I have the ability to create many things, objects that mortal men would not be able to craft. Perhaps blades that could cut through normal steel and never dull, or clothing that would not fade and never tear."_

_The first brother then stepped forward. "Alright then Death if you speak the truth grant me a wand that would never lose. A wand that will always bring victory to its master."_

_Death raised an unseen eyebrow beneath his cowl. With his knowledge of magic he would be able to create a wand that might not be unbeatable but would give its wielder a vast advantage in battle."_

"_May I see that wand that you are pointing at me?" Death asked holding his hand out._

_Antioch looked at Death's extended hand warily before cautiously stepping forward and relinquishing his wand. Death then walked on air back to the elder tree he had been hiding under. He then took a branch of the tree before walking back to the brothers._

_Suddenly in one quick movement that was almost too fast for the brothers to see Death took his scythe and swung at nothing before returning it to its place on his back. _

_The brothers were just about to ask what had been done when Death's hand that held the wand and elder branch shot forward and disappeared into nothingness. The brothers were astonished as they noticed what had happened. With the swing of his blade Death had seemingly rent a hole in the air itself, like he created a pocket to reach into. _

_It did not take long for Death to finish his task, as he pulled what looked like a newly polished wand that shimmered in the fading light._

"_Your wand as you requested." Death said handing the wand to the eldest brother. _

_Seeing the wand the middle brother seemed to gain his courage and laughed. _

"_You see brothers, obviously there is no one in the world more powerful than us for even Death himself is amazed." Cadmus said with a broad smile on his face. "Surely it is within your power to grant me a way to recall those that have already passed? A way to bring back those that are already in your grasp."_

"_As you wish." Death replied, doing well to not let the annoyance he felt creep into his voice. The Last Soul Reaper even came prepared for such a haughty request._

_Walking over to the edge of the river Death selected a small smooth stone. He then stood up and again took the scythe from his back, with a thrust and twist the Senkaimon opened before him. Stepping into the portal Death disappeared inside._

"_Is that a portal to the other side?" Ignotus asked. _

"_Perhaps he is running away?" Cadmus laughed._

"_It was a bold request brother but I doubt he would not return." Antioch replied. _

_Less than half a minute after he had gone Death returned and strode towards Cadmus placing the seemingly simple stone in the middle brother's hand._

_Then Death turned to the last brother. "And what would you desire?"_

_Ignotus paused thinking hard about what would be best, because he wisely was cautious of Death's strange appearance. _

"_Please sir, grant me a way to leave here undetected something I may have that would conceal me from my enemies, even a way to hide from even Death himself."_

_Death frowned for that was a request he could not grant. His entire purpose here was to keep track of these three brothers, if they were left unchecked they could start something that could unbalance everything. Although he was loath to do it he would do what he must. His oath may prevent him from taking the souls of those still alive but that did not mean he could not lie to them. _

"_Very well." Death said. "Do you have a bit of cloth that I could have?"_

_Ignotus nodded as he took a silk handkerchief from his pocket and presented it to Death. _

_Death took it and then reached down and tore a substantial section of the hem of his cloak off. Again Death Took his scythe and cut the air placing the black and white pieces of cloth inside. After a moment Death pulled forth a stunning pale silver cloak,_

"_As requested I give you a cloak of invisibility that will hide you as good as any spirit."_

_Ignotus accepted the cloak with a bow and backed away._

"_Farewell," Death simply said before he suddenly vanished._

"_Incredible." Ignotus breathed. "We have met death and still live, what do we do now?"_

"_What do you mean." Cadmus scoffed. "Why should meeting Death change anything? We have been dealing with spirits for years. The only difference is that he has given me a tool to greatly accelerate our research." He said holding up the Stone he was given. "The plan remains the same, we go to my house and continue our studies."_

"_I agree, although before we go to your house I wish to test this Wand." Antioch said admiring the Wand. "I will return after I am finished."_

_Ignotus nodded. "I also wish to examine this Cloak, as soon as I finish I will return. Just promise me you will be cautious brothers, soon we will be together again."_

_Then the three brothers went their separate ways expecting to be reunited together again soon._

* * *

Death sighed as he finished telling the tale to his apprentice.

"That's it?" Harry questioned. "You didn't do anything to stop them?"

"No, it was my hope that my appearance would cause them to stop their foolish actions."

"But it didn't." Harry said. "You just said that they still planned to continue their research after they had all gotten back together.""Yes, that was their plan however things did not go as they expected." Death replied. "You see I had given them each of those gifts for a reason. Each of those gifts were infused with my spiritual pressure, it was a way of tracking them down easily. Even the Cloak was actually the opposite from what the youngest brother had requested. As long as the brothers kept the items with them I would be able to know where they were and if they were doing anything that affected spirits."

"So what happened to the brothers?" Harry inquired.

"The oldest traveled to a town where he challenged an enemy of his to a duel and with the power that the Wand granted him he easily defeated and killed his rival."

"What did you do to the Wand that made it so special?" Asked the young soul Reaper.

"It was quite simple, I infused the wand with Spiritual energy so that any spells that were cast by it would react differently. Spells cast by it would not be stopped by magical shields, just like a magical shield would not affect us. You can imagine how this would affect most wizard duels, Although while the wand is not unbeatable its still quite formidable."

"So after the duel what happened to the oldest brother?"

"He celebrated." Death answered simply. "He went to a local inn and got drunk. He started to boast about the battle and how he was the greatest, even besting Death himself whom he forced to give an unbeatable wand. Talk of an unbeatable wand given by Death was enough to peak the interest of many, and someone went so far as to take the wand from the brother in his drunken stupor and kill him afterwards."

"So you did not need to worry about that brother anymore." Harry said. "What happened to the other brothers?"

"The middle brother returned home intending to continue his research, using the powers of the Stone he attempted to bring back his dead love. However I could not and would not give him something that would bring the dead back to life. So instead of bringing back the woman's soul it only conjured up a shadow of what she used to be. What I had created would not bring back a person's soul, it was more a window into the Soul Society. Not even the soul you would try to contact would know about you attempt, the gap between life and death is simply too great. Eventually the brother grew depressed to be so close to his love and yet so far. None of his experiments did anything and the constant reminder of seeing her day after day grew into despair and desperate longing. His desire to be with her became so great that he killed himself."

"What about the last brother did he soon die as well?" Asked Harry.

"The youngest brother seemed to have learned something from meeting me. After enjoying the wondrous cloak I had given him he received news of his oldest brother's death. He went and attended to his brother's funeral and attempted without success to uncover his murderer. After that he traveled to his other brother's home where he found his body. After the death of his brothers the youngest stopped all his experimentation and lived peacefully for rest of his life, then I came to collect his soul."

Harry paused and though for a bit before asking a question on his mind. "Did you plan on that happening? That the two brothers would soon die after you gave them their gifts?"

"Plan it, no. Suspected it might happen, yes. It is always dangerous when someone receives power they did not earn. Princes have become kings gaining vast amounts of power they did not deserve. Those unworthy kings have spelled ruin to entire nations because they unwisely used the power they inherited. It was only my intention to track the brothers so that I would know if they did any more experiments that could endanger the balance. As you should know I do not seek to harm life but to ensure it. In the end I went to collect each of the brothers when they died. They were special and I will admit that when I took them to the Soul Society it was my hope that their spirit energy could grow and they could become Soul Reapers. Sadly that was not to be. The slow march of time continues, men are born, grow old, then die. Nations spring up then crumble. Luckily in time you were brought to me."

Harry smile at his sensei nodding in understanding. However the story of the three brothers caused him to question himself. His own high spirit energy was still a mystery, what would he do if his existence was found to be a danger the balance.

The three brothers were a danger to all whether they meant it or not. Death actually was quite merciful when a more direct way could have been to leave them alive but chopping off their limbs so that they would be unable to practice magic.

"What happened to the other gifts you gave the brothers? I was given the Cloak today but what of the Wand and the Stone?"

"I am not entirely sure, I should be able to track them down if I wished it. However I am not sure they still exist. The wand once was infamous for being used by dark wizards. However I have not heard anything of its use for a hundred years or so." Death answered.

"So what should I do with the Cloak?" Harry asked.

"Keep it. I doubt you would need it but it might be helpful when you are in your physical form." Death replied. "If it truly was your father's than in now belongs to you. If you are a descendant of the youngest brother then it might even explain your high spirit energy."

Harry nodded. "Alright sensei, I will treat it with care, is there anything else you want to talk to me about?"

"If you wish it we may go to the Soul Society." Death stated,

"I really would like to." Harry said with a frown. "However since there is so few people that are in the castle I don't want to risk leaving Gigan in charge. Ron might notice the small differences if there is nothing else to distract him."

"Very well Harry then I should go, I do not feel that it is a good idea for me to stay in this place too long."

* * *

Harry made his way back up to the tower ascending effortlessly into the air. Making it to the same window he had exited from the young Soul Reaper opened it and slid through. After closing and latching the window Harry climbed back into his body.

As soon as he opened his physical eyes he knew something was different. Ron's snores were missing. Getting up and throwing the covers off of him Harry went to Ron's bed only to find it empty.

"Ron." Harry called thinking that he had perhaps gone to the restroom.

Then a bad thought came to his mind as Harry went to his trunk. Looking inside confirmed what he feared. The invisibility cloak was gone.

Harry growled, as he pulled out an inkwell from his trunk. "Hearts of the south and eye of the north. Fingers of the west and heel of the east. Gather together the wind, and scatter the rain. Bakudo fifty eight. Kakushitsuijaku." He said making the symbol on the ground.

He found that is was much easier to find Ron because of the familiar spirit energy coming off the Invisibility Cloak. Ron was currently in an empty class room just standing there. Harry pondered what to do, whether he should go after him or not. Harry decided to wait for him as he cast his search around in case there was anyone that would catch Ron. That's when Harry noticed something just outside one the castle grounds were two people. Whoever they were they slowly were making their way around the castle perimeter creating a what seemed to be a barrier of some sorts. Harry could not be sure but the barrier they were creating seemed to stand out, almost like it was enforced with spirit energy.

The Boy-Who-Lived canceled his kido and was tempted to become a Soul Reaper and investigate. However he decided to deal with Ron first before anything else. Walking down to the common room he decided to wait until his red-headed friend returned. It was about an hour later when the portrait hole opened by an unseen force, and Death's familiar spirit energy hummed from a space of empty air as Ron entered.

"Ron." Harry said, causing Ron to gasp in surprise.

"Harry you almost scared me to death." Ron gasped as he took the Invisibility Cloak off. "What are you doing out of bed?"

"I should be asking you that. Also what are you doing with my cloak?"

Ron looked down a look of guilt on his face. "I'm sorry Harry, its just.. I'm sorry."

"That's it, sorry?" Harry questioned angrily, as Ron's shoulders sunk. "Not only did you take something of mine without permission you used it to help you break the rules. Did you think what might happen if you got caught? They might have taken this away because it was with you."

Ron seemed to be taken back by Harry words, as a multitude of emotions shot across his face. Harry almost expected Ron to argue back when he spoke again.

"I won't do it again alright. Its just you were asleep and I did not want to wake you. I just got it out to look at it and see how it felt. As soon as I put it I just thought that it was a shame that it wasn't being used and I took it out."

Harry sighed as Ron continued to talk.

"This thing is great I didn't get caught so you don't have to worry. I even walked right past Snape and Quirrell getting into a fight, they did not even know I was there. Oh! and I found this amazing mirror you have to see it!" Ron uttered seeming forgetting about his guilt.

Although Harry was still annoyed with Ron he was curious about Snape and Quirrell. "What were the two Professor's fighting about?"

"I couldn't really hear them, I was too freaked out that I was so close to Snape out of bounds at night." Ron Answered before his face suddenly light up. "I know! I'll make it all up to you. The mirror I found shows the future. Come on, I'll show you." Ron said excitedly as he went back to the portrait hole.

"Ron we should really go to bed." Harry said.

"Come on Harry it won't take long, and it's not like we have to get up early for classes tomorrow."

Harry sighed again, but the enthusiasm in his voice was too earnest, and the idea of a mirror that showed the future did sound interesting.

"Alright but if you're too loud I'm taking the cloak and abandoning you." Harry said seriously.

A nervous look came to Ron's face, before he shrugged. "I suppose that's fair."

The two Gryffindors slowly made their way through the castle unopposed until they rounded a corner and saw a dark figure. Ron froze up for a second before Harry prodded him and guided the two of them into a corner.

"A spirit I wonder?" Spoke the voice of a woman, coming from the dark figure. "Very strange that I can feel you and not see you."

Harry eyed her warily, what she said instantly put his guard up. He had no idea who she was but many questions popped into his head. Was she sensing the Cloak or his own spirit-energy. Trying to suppress his own spiritual pressure as much as possible he examined the woman before him.

The black hat and robe concealed any of her features but it was not what she looked like that caught his attention. It was the spiritual energy that thrummed off of her. It was strange what he felt. She had just as much spirit energy as Peeves, but it seemed different. It felt as if her spirit energy was sharper, Harry guessed that it might be enhanced somehow or she was trained in some way.

In the darkness the woman pulled out something white and stuck it to a nearby wall. She then went to the opposite wall and placed a similar object very close to them.

Once she pulled her hand away Harry was able to see what she had put on the wall it was some sort of paper tag that had odd symbols over it that looked more like child squiggles than letters. Whatever the woman was doing Harry did not want to stay around and find out. Thinking quickly the young Gryffindor reached into his pocket pulling out the inkwell he had used earlier and threw it down the corridor when the woman's back was turned. The sharp sound of something shattering caught the woman's attention, she paused for a moment then went to investigate the noise. As soon as she was several paces away Harry guided Ron out of the corner. They were headed away from the woman in black and had to pass by the tags that she had set up, However just as they passed between them Harry felt something.

It was like he was passing through a curtain of water, but as soon as they were pass the line created by the two tags the feeling vanished. Harry looked over at Ron but he did not seem to notice. Deciding to ignore it for now the two of them quietly made their getaway.

They were well out of earshot before Ron started breathing again. "I can't believe it. That had to be The Shadow. I gotta tell Fred and George that The Shadow is a girl, their going to be so jealous."

"And what are you going to tell them when they asked what you were doing when you saw her?" Harry asked rhetorically. knowing that whoever that woman was she was not The Shadow. Although knowing that it did not answer any of the questions he had about her.

"Oh right." Said Ron realizing that he should not tell anyone else about tonight.

After a few minutes they seemed to reach their destination.

"Its in here." Ron whispered quietly. "I was walking exploring when I saw that this door was open, so I looked inside."

As soon as they were inside Ron bolted out from under the Cloak and ran in front of a massive golden framed mirror.

"Can't you see?" Ron asked excitedly. "I'm going to be Head Boy and the Quidditch Captain."

Harry walked over and looked at the mirror and only see Ron reflected with a look of elation on his face.

"I only see you." Harry stated.

"Oh stand if front of it properly." Ron moaned.

Before he could do so Harry noticed an ornate inscription at the top of the mirror. '_Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_'

The young Soul Reaper paused trying to make sense of the words. He was not like his sensei when it came to languages. While he did not like to boast Death probably knew almost every language there was to know including many that were long dead. Harry however could only speak English and a bit of French due to his schooling. Then again that did not mean he was ignorant about other languages. Being the Apprentice of Death Harry had been to many countries around the world as he helped Death collect souls. The language on the mirror was nothing he was familiar with. The letters were the same used in English so that mostly narrowed it down to a Latin based language.

Harry was about to give up when he realized that the first part on the mirror was the word Desire spelled backwards, so working form that Harry mentally translated. '_I show not your face but your hearts desire._'

Harry paused before standing in front of the mirror wondering what he would see.

Stepping in front of the mirror Harry looked up see a dark figure opposite him. The last Potter almost jumped in surprised until he realized what he was seeing.

"Do you see it?" Ron asked interrupting his thoughts.

"No. I don't see you as Head Boy, I think the mirror will show something different for each person."

"Why what do you see?" Ron asked.

"I see myself" Harry smiled.

"What else?"

"That's it_._" Harry replied, half lying. For in front of him was indeed himself, however he looked into the mirror he saw himself as a Soul Reaper looking back. Harry chuckled as he realized how simple and complicated his desire was.

"Come on Ron its late, we should get back to bed." Harry sighed.

Ron complained as Harry nearly had to drag him from the room saying that he wanted to look at the mirror for a little longer. The two of them left for the night neither of them noticing the other mirror in the room. Propped in the opposite corner from the Mirror of Erised was a much smaller one barely the size of a hand-mirror.

XXXXXXX

(Author Notes) Yay new chapter. This chapter gave me quite a bit of trouble until my friend and beta reader helped me brain storm. Alright I am getting near the point were I get to have lots of fun with this story, please bare with me. I have been writing a lot more for this story than I ever thought I would when I first started out, I just broke on hundred pages.

I amazes me how many ideas I get from reading over the book again as I write. I got the idea of the Headmaster enchanting the cloak from a part from the book.

Strait from the book, Harry puts on the cloak and. "Suddenly, Harry felt wide-awake. The whole of Hogwarts was open to him I this cloak. Excitement flooded through him as he stood there in the dark and silence. He could go anywhere in this, anywhere and Filch would never know."

I just thought that I could explain it as the cloak being enchanted to affect Harry's way of thinking. I figure its just as far fetched as the idea many authors use saying that Molly Weasley saying the name of Platform nine and three-quarters out loud was simply the beginning of a ploy to orchestrate Harry's entire life. Oh and for those of you wondering what is going on with the Department of Mysteries don't worry I will be having lots of fun with them in the next chapter.

I had an idea while I was finishing this chapter as to how I view my version of Dumbledore. For those familiar with the concept I am trying to go for the Benevolent Evil in Dumbledore. While Voldemort would definitely the Chaotic Evil.


	20. The Unsealed Blade

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat.

(Author Notes) Alright now this is the longest chapter I have written so far so I would really appreciate some feedback about what you thought about it. Alright I'm done enjoy.

XXXXXXXXXX

Dumbledore sat in his office in the early morning hours gently stroking his long beard. His contemplation was interrupted when he felt someone approaching his door.

"Enter." Albus called before they could knock.

The door opened and the Unspeakable with a heavy build entered.

"Ah, good morning Murdock. Is everything going well?" Dumbledore asked.

"Please Headmaster, It seems odd to use my name when I am on duty." The Unspeakable revealed as Murdock replied with a bit of uneasiness in his voice.

"Do forgive me if I am not amazed by the excitement surrounding the Department of Mysteries." Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye. "Its just that it hasn't been that long since you were a student of mine."

"Its been twelve years, sir." Murdock sighed.

The Headmaster chuckled. "Well when you compare twelve years with my lifetime its not that long. Anyway I am happy to see that you are doing well, an Unspeakable is a very respectable career even if it does come with a bit of foreboding attached to it."

"Yes, Headmaster, thank you." Murdock replied. "I'm here to inform you that all of our preparations are complete."  
"Efficient as usual." Dumbledore smiled. "That is good to know. Is there anything thing else you or your co-workers require?"

"Yes, is there a room that we could use as a base of sorts? We need to stay in the castle to monitor our barriers."  
"Of course, how foolish of me. You've been working all night, and will most likely have a busy night tonight. Tobsie." Albus called.

In a muted pop a relatively tall house elf appeared. "You called Headmaster." Tobsie said, with a bow.

"Please guide our visitor to the guest rooms on the fourth floor, and provide them with any refreshments they might desire." The Headmaster said, then turned back to Murdock. "If there is anything thing else you need feel free to contact me, I am very grateful for the help that the Department of Mysteries could send on such short notice and during the holidays no less.

"Yes, Headmaster if everything goes well we should have the situation under control before tomorrow morning. I will tell the others of our condition." The Unspeakable said before following Tobsie out.

Dumbledore smiled leaning back in his chair with a sigh. It finally seemed that things were looking up for him. Although there were a few things he still needed to sort out. While his plan on leading Harry to the Mirror of Erised did not happen as he expected in the end the result was just the same. The troubling part was that he was unsure of what he had learned.

Albus had first become excited when the tracking spell on the cloak had registered that it was on the move, Dumbledore waited patiently till Harry entered the room with the Mirror. However it was not young Harry that he saw. Using a two way mirror that would send to its brother mirror in his possession. Albus was surprised to see that Ron Weasley had the cloak and found the Mirror of Erised.

At first he had been extremely disappointed, he feared that his plans had been ruined. Luckily that did not seem to be the case as Ron soon left and returned with the person he was really interested in. His disappointment quickly turned into illation as it seemed that Ron's intrusions could be more beneficial than his original plan.

It all seemed to be going well as Ron told Harry what he saw in the mirror. It was a simple and selfish desire as one would expect from the boy overshadowed by his older brothers. It was then Harry's turn to look into the mirror. That is where Dumbledore became confused.

Harry said that he only saw himself in the mirror. If that was true then that could have been the worst case for his plans. If Harry was content with everything in his life then there would be no way to guide him. The Mirror of Erised showed a persons deepest darkest desire, no matter what it was. Men had wasted their lives in front of the mirror as they stared longingly at that which they could not achieve. Similarly men had been shocked as the mirror showed truth within their hearts, truths that they did not want to admit.

Knowing someone's deepest desire went a long way in understanding the person themselves. If you knew that someone desired money above all else then it would be easy to influence that person.

However that seemed to not be the case with Harry. While he did not believe that Harry simply saw himself it did not tell him what Harry truly saw. Albus sighed as he admitted to himself that his plan did not go as well as he had hopped. It was a feeble plan from the start and with Harry's skills in Occlumency he had no way of pulling the information from his mind. There still might be some hope if Harry returned to the mirror, if he did then there would be the chance that he could confront Harry there at the mirror. However for now he would have to wait and hope that he could unwrap the mysteries surrounding The-Boy-Who-Lived.

* * *

Harry woke up as a light weight moved across his chest, slowly he opened one eye and saw Agrona's dark shape silhouetted against the gloomy gray of the early morning

"What do you want?" Harry asked his familiar.

For some reason the raven seemed agitated as her head turned from side to side as she puffed herself up.  
"What's wrong?" Harry asked as he stretched and Agrona cawed quietly twice.

Harry took a deep breath and reached out with his senses. It did not take him long for him to realize that the castle felt radically different. The best way he could thing of describing it was that everything felt thick, something had changed about the castle and he wanted to find out what.

"Come on." Harry ordered extending his hand and Agrona hopped on. Harry swiftly got out of bed ignoring Ron's snores. After retrieving the last inkwell he had Harry headed to the bathroom. Entering a shower stall Harry drew some symbols on the floor and cast Bakudo Number fifty-eight. The information he received from his kido spell revealed some strange changes. First of all the range of his spell was significantly cut short, before he could see all the castle grounds and into the Forbidden Forest somewhat. However now the range of his spell was restricted to the castle itself. The cause of this was easy to see, as the line that the two unknown people were creating last night had been completed. It now encompassed the entire castle and seemed that it was preventing any spiritual energy past it. Harry paused before he looked around the castle for any other changes but found nothing that stood out.

Harry sighed as he undressed and turned the shower on. The warm water served two purposes as it washed away his tracking circle and allowed him time to think. It did not take him long to decide on what to do. Harry toweled himself off and exited the shower stall. Agrona gave an impatient caw as she waited on a sink.

"Alright, there's something I need you to do." Harry whispered, as he exited the bathroom and Agrona flew to her perch beside his bed.

The last Potter quickly got ready for the day all while Ron quietly snored away in his bed.

"Listen carefully." Harry instructed. "Right outside of the castle there is a barrier of some sorts. I want you to fly out and see if you can get through, make sure you are careful. If you can't get through fly back here, but if you can fly to the owlry and stay there till I come to get you."

Agrona hopped up and down giving several annoyed caws as she voiced her disliked of the plan.

"Please don't be like that." Harry pleaded. "I'm pretty sure that the barrier will only affect spirits and I want to make sure. I'd bet that something is going down with all the ghosts in the castle and since you are spiritually sensitive it could affect you. The owlry is outside of the barrier and should be safe for you, and if any of the owls try to mess with you show them who's boss. Just go for their eyes and watch out for their talons."

Agrona seemed to deflate as she hopped onto Harry's shoulder as he made his way to the window.  
"Alright when you get through give a few caws so I know, then head to the owlry." Harry instructed as he opened a window.

Agrona gave an affectionate tug on a tuft of his drying hair before flying out the window. It did not take long before Harry heard the distant caws of his raven calling back to him. The-Boy-Who-Lived then headed to the portrait hole to enact the next part of his plan. Leaving the dorm Harry went to the nearest restroom, once inside Harry pulled out his Soul Candy and quickly ingested one.

"Hey there boss! Whoa what's that?" Gigan asked as he too felt the change to the school.  
"Don't know but that's what I want to find out." Harry answered, as he smoothed out his cloak now that he was in his Soul Reaper form.

"Cool anything I can do?" Gigan said enthusiastically

"No, just keep out of the way as much as possible. It might take me a while to figure out what is going on so try to keep a low profile. Go to meals but keep quiet, There aren't many people around so stay in the Library or the dorm. While you are in the Library try to find something about Nicolas Flammel, and if you can try avoid Ron. Got it?

"Got it boss." Gigan said with a salute.

Then the both of them left the restroom Gigan leading the way to make sure the coast was clear. As soon as they were separated Harry reached out his senses and tried to find Peeves. Harry was glad that whatever was happening to the school did not affect his senses as he was able to sense the poltergeist as easily as before. Slowly making his way through the castle he found Peeves near the kitchens.

"Peeves." The Apprentice of Death whispered to the little spirit.

"Soul Reaper?" Peeves hissed back. Sighing Peeves floated over to Harry. "I was hoping you would find me. What's going on?"

"I don't know I was hoping that you would be able to answer that." He replied.

"I don't know that, all I know is that the school feels different I don't know what is causing it or why." Peeves said in a nervous tone. "I can tell you one thing something is going to happen soon, I just know it."

"How do you know that?" Inquired Harry.

"Because Soul Reaper I've been raising havoc and causing trouble for so long that I can smell when something is afoot."

"Alright." Harry muttered not sure if he believed the little spirit. "Have you heard from any of the other ghosts?"  
"No, but I did see the Barron talking to another ghost outside of the dungeons no less. He will almost never talks to other ghost unless he has to."

The Apprentice of Death paused to think about this new information. "Alright I think we should split up and see what we can find any information about what is happening. See if you can question some other ghosts, perhaps they know what is going on. I have something I want to check on, it could be causing all of this. Hopefully after that I might have some answers soon. I will come to check on you later."

"I don't like this Soul Reaper, I don't like this on bit" Peeves said with a paranoid look on his face.  
"Don't worry too much it might be nothing." Harry said trying to calm the little spirit down even if he did not believe his own words.

* * *

In a well hidden section of the fourth floor the three Unspeakables finally gathered in the guest rooms provided for them. A house elf had recently dropped by, providing breakfast for the trio. Murdock, the largest of the three stretched and sat down in front of the food. It was then that he took off his large brimmed Wizards hat and allowed the light to illuminate his face.

Murdock's most prominent feature was the even but fluffy heard that covered much of his face while short curly hair grew on his head. A shine came to his light brown eyes as he sat down at the table.

"Mmmm bacon." He said, serving himself a health amount of food. "It's been a while since I have had Hogwarts food and it's as good as I remember it."

"Leave some for me." The other male Unspeakable said, as he sat down and removed his hat. "It's been even longer since I have had Hogwarts food."

"Don't worry William there's plenty of food here." Murdock said.

"Yes, those House Elves do enjoy outdoing themselves." William smiled, causing the wrinkles on his face to become deeper.

William's face was cleanly shaven and much of his head was bald. What hair he did have along the sides and back of his head was a very pale yellow suggesting that he once had blond hair but had now lightened to the point that it was almost white.

"Come sit down and eat Maylee." William called, beckoning the last Unspeakable over.

With a sigh the woman now identified as Maylee sat down and removed her hat. She seemed quite young perhaps in her mid-twenties. She was obviously of oriental descent if any of the features on her pleasantly rounded face were any indications. Scanning the table with her dark eyes she seemed to come to a decision and reach for the eggs.

"Everything went well with the barrier?" Maylee asked. "Nothing unexpected?"

"Yes. Everything went well except for the fact that there was so much ground to cover." Murdock grumbled. "Creating a barrier around Hogwarts is a lot harder than the homes we've done before. Not to mention the fact that it was cold and snowing out there."

"I don't see why you are complaining it wasn't that bad." William said.

"So says you. "Murdock said with a humph. "Any other person your age would be dead after something like that. I still can't figure out how most of your body seems to think that it's half its age."

"Oh I'm entitled to have some secrets, maybe you will figure it out by the time you're my age as well." William chuckled. "What about you Maylee did anything happen when you were familiarizing yourself with the castle?"  
The female Unspeakable paused before speaking. "Perhaps. I think that there is something else going on at this school. More than we were originally told."

"What do you mean?" William asked

"I was walking the halls when I sensed a spirit, however I could not see whoever it was." Maylee said almost as if she were thinking out loud. "I wanted to catch the spirit but before I was finished placing my tags there was a shattering sound that came from down the hall. When I went to investigate I found a shattered ink well but nothing else. As soon as I returned the feeling of the spirit was gone."

"Any ideas what it could have been?" Murdock asked.

"It could have been a student roaming the halls, and then used whatever was on hand for a distraction." William guessed.

"If it was a student then why did I feel a spirit, and why would this student be invisible?" Maylee asked rhetorically.

"That is a good question." Murdock agreed. "Can't some Ghosts become invisible for short periods of time?"  
"Sometimes there is a rare one or two." Maylee answered. "But that doesn't matter while they can become invisible to other wizards I can still see those, only other people without my training can't."

"Mmmm." William mused. "I don't know but this is the one of the most magical places in the world. There has always been some strange things going on here."

"Just like how all the ghosts here are on edge?" Maylee murmured. "I can feel it. Something more is going on here."

Murdock and William looked at each other. From what their experience of Maylee's skills they knew not to brush off her instincts.

"If that is the case then we need to be on guard." William said. "Murdock!"

"Yes Sir!" Murdock yelped sitting rigidly in his chair.

"You're on first watch." William commanded. "Watch the barrier I don't want anything screwing with it. Maylee will replace you then I will finish. Get some rest, if Maylee is right we can expect a busy night. So we are starting the second curfew for the school begins. I want everything quick and to the letter I will not tolerate anyone tarnishing the Department of Mysteries good name."

"Yes sir." Both Murdock and Maylee chimed.

* * *

"I don't know about you but I'm not sure I like this." The Grey Lady said as she was floating beside Nearly Headless Nick. "I mean, this feeling is just unnatural. I haven't felt anything in so long and now today its everywhere. I don't know about you but I think I am developing an itch, and how am I supposed to scratch it?"

"I know what you mean. While its nice to feel anything after so long I wish it could have been a pleasant feeling this is really nothing, its just there. I have to admit, I am not sure I like what is going on." Nick said.

"What do you mean?" The Grey Lady asked.

"I mean everything with the Ministy of Magic being here." Nick answered.

"They are here to help us. What's so bad about it?" The Ravenclaw house ghost said.

"How are they going to help us though?" Sir Nick mused. "They come in hear all mysteriously and all the sudden the school feels odd and then the Headmaster tells us that after curfew we are not allowed to float through the walls or something bad might happen to us"

"Yes I agree it's odd, I too would like a little more information." The Grey Lady agreed.

"Not to mention all the trouble it causes us. The Friar is still trying to coax Moaning Myrtle out of her toilet." Sir Nick sighed. "I just wish that we were more involved, surely we could help with whatever their plan is"

"Well maybe they don't want us involved, you know if Gabriella the Gossip caught wind of it news would be around the castle in minutes." The Grey Lady shrugged.

"I suppose." Nick agreed reluctantly. I guess we should split up and find the rest of the ghosts. There are still many more that we need to tell."

The two house ghosts then split up floating away in separate directions.

Not long after they left a dark figure emerged from the shadows beside a coat of armor. The Apprentice of Death said nothing as he silently left moving down the hall seamlessly moving from shadow to shadow.

It did not take Harry long to reach his destination. He stood at the edge of the invisible barrier surrounding the school. Without touching the barrier the little Soul Reaper put his hand up and tried to examine it.

He was surprised what he felt, it was a magical ward of some type. The ward radiated with power that created a sphere of energy around the entire school, even above and below ground. Harry did not really know how but the barrier prevented the flow of all spiritual energy beyond its ridged walls. Strangely It reminded Harry of the protections provided by the sekkiseki rock surrounding the Seireitei. However it was a lot less powerful, the ridged barrier was strong but brittle. A powerful enough strike with spiritual energy would shatter the entire ward.

The young Soul Reaper smiled in the knowledge that he had enough power to destroy the ward. He might be the only thing that would be able to destroy the ward it was doubtful that all the spirits in Hogwarts combining all their energy at once would do anything to the barrier.

Harry's thoughts were interrupted when a distant barking caught his attention. There at the edge of the grounds Fang the boarhound jumped out of the Groundskeeper's cabin barking enthusiastically. The beast was soon followed by his owner.

Harry sighed as he looked for some nearby cover. Seeing nothing suitable Harry took one great leap back towards the castle and landed on top of a crenulated section of wall. From his cover on the wall Harry watch Hagrid slowly trudge up to the castle. After he entered Harry sighed, deciding that he had found out all the information that he needed, and he too slipped back inside.

Time slowly slipped away slowly ticking down to the end of the day. Harry honestly was not sure of what to do. From what he had overheard from the conversation of the House ghosts something was going to happen at curfew. The school rules said that all students had to at least be back in their dorms common rooms at ten o'clock. There was still quite a while before then and Harry did not really know what else to do.

Making his decision Harry spread out senses and searched for Gigan and his body. Detecting his body far above him The Soul Reaper popped out a window and flew up to the Gryffindor Tower. Reaching the window outside his dorm Harry spied his body inside lounging on his bed. Discretely knocking on the window Gigan looked up and saw him. Immediately the replacement soul got up and unlocked the window allowing Harry in.

"Hey boss! How are things going?" Gigan chimed.

"Fine, nothing has gone wrong so far." Harry answered

"So far?"

"Where's Ron." Harry asked not answering Gigan's question.

"I dunno." Gigan shrugged. "Last time I saw him he was in the library. I've been avoiding him like you told me to."  
Harry nodded. "Is there anything you have to report, did you see anything odd?"

"No, not really, just the same strange feeling around the entire school." Gigan said, but then his eyes lit up. "Oh oh I did find something. Nicolas Flammell, I was bored in here so I decide to alphabetize all the wizarding collector cards from the frogs you got on Christmas. Flammell is mentioned in Dumbledore's card."

"Really let me se-" Harry was interrupted as he sensed someone approaching.

Making a quick decision Harry stepped back into his body. A few moments later the door to the dorm opened and in steeped Ron Weasley.

"There you are." Ron said after seen him. "Where have you been all day? I've been looking for you."  
"I just wanted some time to myself." Harry replied.

"Why, something going on? I barely saw you at breakfast and you didn't even show up at lunch."  
"That would explain why my body is so hungry." Harry thought. "Gigan must have skipped lunch to stay away from people."

"No everything is fine." Harry told Ron." Dinner will be starting soon lets go down and eat."

Dinner was boring. Harry had hoped that the woman with the high spirit energy would be there, sadly she was not. Harry did his best to ignore his red-headed friend barely answering him when he tried to start a conversation. Eventually Dinner ended and they headed back up to their dorms.

"Hey Harry." Ron called. "Do you want to play a game of Wizards chess before bed?"

"No." Harry answered simply.

"What's going on!" Ron demanded. "You've been ignoring me all day, why?"

"Because I don't feel like being around you." Harry replied keeping his tone even.

"Why?"

"Because I don't like people going through my stuff and then taking it like it's theirs."

"Oh that. I already said I was sorry." Ron whined. "I thought I had already made it up to you by showing you the mirror."

"No Ron." Harry shook his head. "I like my privacy, and I haven't said that I forgive you yet."

"But but." Ron stuttered, then his expression grew angry. "Fine."

Harry's eyebrows raised as Ron stomped away from him. Harry knew that he was being harsh with Ron but he needed to learn this lesson. If Ron didn't he could perhaps stumble into something Harry wanted to keep secret. What if his soul candy had been in his trunk when he decided to go rummaging.

Ron was alright for an eleven year old, but he was still immature and easily influenced by his emotions. However Harry did try to understand where he was coming from. Ron had a huge family, something he was not familiar with. However Harry could guess that with that large of a family your personal boundaries could be somewhat different than others. Surely he had gotten used to his family sharing almost everything they had with each other.  
Shaking his head Harry pulled out his wand. "_Tempus_."

Speaking the incantation three ghostly numbers appeared before him. 7:30, it would not be long before curfew.  
It was not long before curfew came and went Harry was up in his dorm reading Albus Dumbledore's card. From the information he found on it Harry was confident that he could search up more information about the alchemist Nicolas Flammell.

Suddenly it happened, the stuffy thick feeling that had permeated the school solidified. It was as if the gentle flow of spiritual energy had frozen. The oppressive feeling seemed that it was even affecting his spirit sense slightly.  
Standing up Harry walked to his trunk and pulled out the Invisibility Cloak. Just then the bathroom door opened and Ron stepped out wearing a towel after completing one of his weekly showers.

Seeing the Invisibility Cloak in his hand Ron spoke. "What are you doing with that thing?"

"Going out." Harry replied simply.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to the mirror." Lied Harry after thinking quickly. "There's something I want to check about it real fast."

"Take me with you."

"No." Harry said.

"Why not? You'll get in trouble if you don't."

"Why would I get in trouble Ron?" Are you going to tattle on me?"

Ron's face looked indecisive for a few moments before his shoulders sunk with a sigh. "No."

"I won't get in trouble thanks for your concern though." Harry said even though he knew that concern was not the reason why Ron wanted to join him.

Wrapping the cloak around him Harry pushed the Fat Lady's portrait away from the exit. Harry quietly crept out as the Fat Lady huffed that she again opened without explanation. As soon he was away Harry pulled out his Soul Candy and popped one in his mouth. That's when something went wrong.

It wasn't the quick ejection of his soul form as he expected, instead it felt like he was forcing himself through a wall. Inadvertently Harry released his spirit energy, an aura of light green energy exploded from Harry's body as he tried to overcome the strange sensation. Just as soon as it started it stopped as the wall seemed to fall away from him and Harry the Soul Reaper popped out.

The air crackled with power as the light green energy continued to come off of Harry in waves. Taking a deep breath Harry reined in his spiritual pressure. Quickly getting it under control Harry pulled the invisible Gigan deeper into the shadows with him.

"What was that?" The Gikongan whispered, his voice shaking slightly.

"I don't know." The young Soul Reaper replied, as he looked around to make sure they were still alone. Harry did not want to admit it but he too was slightly shaking up by the experience. He did not know what to do first. There was no way that every ghost in the castle hadn't have felt the spiritual pressure he had just released, and if that woman he had seen last night were still in the castle she would have felt it too. Harry however did know that nothing would change by just standing there.

"Gigan." Harry said with a shape edge to his voice.

"Yes boss." Gigan replied in a whisper that was very different then his usual enthusiastic tone.

"I want you to go somewhere I can get to you easily." Harry commanded the added after a quick thought."Actually go to the room with the mirror its pretty easy to get to and its still out of the way."

"Ok boss." Gigan said, and Harry was sure he was giving him an invisible salute.

As Gigan left down a corner Harry silently went another direction. There were so many uncertainties running through Harry's mind. However he knew one thing for certain one way or another was going to do his best to settle things tonight.

* * *

Meanwhile just a few minutes earlier.

"If there is any way I can help feel free to ask." Professor Dumbledore said.

"Thank you Headmaster, but that won't be necessary. We are more than capable of handling this." William said, his features once again concealed by his wide brimmed hat. "I am sure your skills no matter how impressive they might be will not be needed."

Dumbledore nodded as he watch the three Unspeakables work. They were in the Great hall as they set up a complex array on the ground using small tiles with various ancient runes carved into them. The Headmaster seemed to enjoy watching them work, his mind puzzling out how each rune in its specific location affected the overall array. The House Tables had been set to the sides of the room and only the week moonlight shining from the enchanted ceiling gave them light.

"Finished." Maylee chimed, as she stood up from her section of the array.

"Good, go ahead and seal the door I don't want any ghosts wandering in here am messing with this." William said as he also finished his sections and stood up his joints popping. "Hurry it up Murdock."

"Almost done." Murdock mumbled irritably.

A rustling of paper was heard as Maylee placed a paper tag on each side of the doorframe. As she retuned to the group Murdock stood up signifying that he was finished.

"If you could step back Headmaster." Murdock said guiding Dumbledore away from the runes.

The Two younger Unspeakables stood back with Albus as William went to the edge of the array. The Elderly Unspeakable started to mutter under his breath as the wand in his flicked and jumped in a complex patter. After several moments William pointed his wand at the center and clearly uttered "_Finio_."

There was a bright flash of white light as William stepped back. With a sigh the Unspeakable walked towards the Headmaster and his two co-workers.

"Everything is prepared." William wheezed.

"Excellent." Dumbledore said an a cheerful and strangely serious tone. "When can I expect your completion?"

"Considering the size of this place several hours." William answered.

Albus nodded as he stroked his beard.

"Is there anything else we need to know Headmaster?" Maylee suddenly asks suspicion ringing clearly in her voice.

Dumbledore simply shook his head. "Just as I said when I requested your Department's help, capture the target and keep him contained so that I may handle him. Other than that do your best to disturb the school as little as possible."

Maylee nodded. "Of course Headmaster."

"Alright lets get a move on." William commanded. "Maylee this is a big castle are you sure you made enough of your tags?"

"Most certainly." The young woman chimed pulling a fist full of paper tags from seemingly nowhere.

"I wish you the best of luck." Albus said, leading the three out of the great hall and with a flick of his wand the large double doors slowly closed with a deep thump. "If you need anything I will be in my office. The password is Smarties."

William nodded as Maylee turned around and placed a tag on the seam where the two double doors met in the middle. As soon as she pulled her hand away she suddenly gave a muted cry and hunched over nearly falling to the floor.

"Maylee!" Murdock uttered and rushed to her side before she fell.

The Headmaster and the other two Unspeakables watched the woman with several different expressions. Several moments latter Maylee gasped and the others relaxed, releasing a breath they did not know they were holding.

"Maylee are you alright?" William asked.

Maylee had sunk to her knees as Murdock held her shoulders. Her breaths came in rapid gasps as if she had just completed a race, after a few seconds her breathing evened out.

"I felt it." She said, reaching up wiping away a cold sweat that had collected on her brow. "It was amazing and terrifying."

The three men seemed to simultaneously frown in confusion.

"Are you sure there is nothing else we need to know Headmaster?" Maylee asked as she stood up. "Because I have the feeling we have just awakened something incredibly powerful."

(Author Notes. You don't know how badly I wanted to end this chapter here so that I could listen to you scream.)

A few feet away Albus's frown deepened. "Very well. There is something in the school something that can affect ghosts. From the beginning of term the ghosts have reported feeling something for the first time since their deaths. The ghosts have said that it feels like there is a giant weight on them or that they were being squeezed. Something I am guessing that you have just experienced."

Maylee nodded allowing the Headmaster to continue.

"The staff and I knew nothing of this until a few weeks ago, when Peeves the Castle's Poltergeist delivered a message to the school from someone called The Shadow."

"Peeves as in our target?" Murdock asked.

Dumbledore nodded. "The message was a threat to the ghost Binns our History Professor. I have since dealt with that situation, and Binns is safe for now. However I have no idea as to what to do about the base problem. The only one that has any real information about The Shadow is Peeves."

"Why did you not tell us this before?" William asked.

"What would I have told you?" Dumbledore asked rhetorically. "I don't know who or even what The Shadow is. I had hoped to receive information for Peeves and then use the information I had gained to deal with The Shadow myself. Despite the threat to Binns I don't know if The Shadow is in anyway dangerous to the living. However I will admit that I didn't want to deal with the headache if news of the situation got out of the school, this school prides itself on being safe after all."

William seemed to growl under his breath. "It would have been nice to know this beforehand Headmaster."

"I don't see how it changes anything." Maylee said quietly, which caused the others to look at her. "The presence that I just felt frightens me. I've never felt anything like it before, however I doubt there is anyone else better equipped to deal with this situation."

"Hmm." Murdock mused. "Maylee is right. If The Shadow is the cause of whatever she felt then it's all the more reason to catch Peeves. Then we might get the information the Headmaster wants so badly."

"Alright then." William grumbled. "Alright same plan as before, but for some reason I feel that we need to be quick about this so no leisurely stroll around the school. Maylee can you tell where the target is?"

The female Unspeakable closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "My best guess is close to the Hufflepuff dorms, near the lake entrance." She said after a few moments.

"Alright we move and cordon off that half of the school from the other half." William said. "We move quickly and get this done just as fast."

"Running in the halls of the school. Sounds like fun." Murdock mocked. "What if we get in trouble."

"I'll risk it, I'm too old for detention." William said, then turned to the other member of his team. "Stay sharp, and check every corner and don't be stingy with your tags."

With a nod the three Unspeakables ran off their dark robes shimmering behind them.

* * *

Harry cautiously made his way down through Hogwarts taking several secret passages to avoid detection. The oppressive stillness of the castle unnerved him and it seemed that at the edges of his senses the castle was changing even exited the secret passage on the second floor. Taking a breath the young Soul Reaper reached out with his senses. He could sense Peeves spirit energy near the ground floor however what caught his attention was the other source of spiritual pressure. The woman he had seen the night before was in the castle and radiating the small amount of power she had. She was rapidly moving through the castle and every moment or so her spirit energy seemed to twitch.

Harry was not sure exactly what was going on but felt that she was making her way over to Peeves's location so he decided to go find the poltergeist.

However as Harry rounded a corner he stopped as he sensed something in front of him. After a quick examination Harry saw two of the strange tags he had seen before on the opposite sides of the hall. Harry felt the tiniest sparkle of spirit energy in front of him. Reaching out Harry's hand was stopped by a barrier. As he guessed it was the same sort of barrier the woman had put up before. However last night when the feeling of water let him pass in his physical form now that he was in his soul form it provided a solid barricade. Pulling his hand back Harry held his hand out flat. Setting his feet The Apprentice of Death shot his hand forward and after a small amount of resistance pierced the barrier.

A smile appeared on Harry's face as the rest of the barricade seemed to pop like a bubble and the two tags caught fire and burned away into nothingness with a blue fire.

"Hmmm." Harry murmured to himself as he set off down the hall again. Not much further down the hall was another set of tags, Harry did not even pause as a quick strike allowed him to pass unhindered. Blue light illuminated his back as he continued to walk down the hall, the tags slowly burning themselves out. Reaching out with his senses The Apprentice of Death strode forward.

* * *

"How do you do it old man?" Murdock puffed as the trio paused from their run around Hogwarts.

"Maybe if you ask nicely and stop calling me old I might tell you." William grumbled, as he too breathed deeply.

"Hopefully that will be enough. Maylee do you know where the target is?"

"He should be just ahead." Maylee answered pointing down the hallway. "I think I already sealed off that section when we passed by earlier."

"Alright if you are correct then we have him cornered." William smiled. "Seal of this side and lets take care of this."  
The Unspeakables slowly made their way down the hall, after every door they passed Maylee would outstretch her arms and fling a paper tag from each hand that would then adhere to the walls. Not long after the three of them heard the sounds of their target as the poltergeist talked to himself.

"Ruddy walls, stupid floor, blasted ceiling. I can't even go through the damnable windows."

They soon saw brightly colored spirit float through an open doorway as he scratched his head.

"If I could find the So-" Peeves stopped himself. As he saw the trio of unspeakable looking at him.

"What do we have here? I doubt you're students." Peeves mocked. "Definitely not ghosts, and I doubt the school got three new teachers. So what might you be?"

"Hello Peeves, long time no see." Murdock said.

"Well I might be able to say that if you weren't wearing that stupid hat." Peeves jeered as he hovered before them.

"I'm afraid that this is standard uniform for Unspeakables." Murdock replied, his voice holding a certain cheerful edge.

"Unspeakables?" Peeves questioned. "Uh, you wouldn't be the cause of everything that has happened today?"

"Yes Peeves." William answered. "I must ask you to come with us."

"Hehehehaha." The little poltergeist laughed, then blew a raspberry at the trio.

"I'm afraid you'll never catch me alive." Peeves said slowly turning his body. "Well actually now that I think about it I'm dead so you will nev-."

Peeves was interrupted as two paper tags fluttered past him and attached to the walls beyond him. Moving suddenly Peeves few off but only made it a few feet before he was stopped by the barrier created by the tags thrown moments before.

"What the?" Peeves uttered, as his little fists pounded against the invisible barricade.

"Hehe neat trick." Peeves muttered nervousness creeping into his voice as he turned back towards the Unspeakables.

Suddenly Peeves moved for an open doorway only for the door to suddenly slam shut.

"Please don't make this harder than it is." Pleaded William as Peeves jetted for another door, only for that to close as with a flick of Williams wand.

"I don't take orders from anyone now." Peeves yelled. "You're three hundred years too late old man."

"Alright then." Murdock said, as he pulled his wand from his robes. "The hard way it is then. _Restis animus_!"

A ghostly silver beam shot from Murdock's wand and hit Peeves in the leg. "Get it off." Peeves uttered as he shook his leg causing the beam to shift and bend like a rope. Peeves tugged and struggled causing a suit of armor to fall over as he made a very good impression of a fish on a hook.

"Heh." Murdock grunted, as he pulled Peeves back towards the other two. "You've led us on quite a chase, you move pretty fast, first floor, third floor, I'm not entirely sure where we are now to be honest."

"Get off." Peeves snarled down at the Unspeakables

"Peeves please stop this we are not her to hurt you." William said as he maneuvered himself around the poltergeist. "Maylee ready your seals."

Once he was on the opposite side of Peeves William waved his wand and shot another ghostly cord to restrain Peeves further. The two men pulled against each other slowly bringing the struggling spirit down until the ghostly cord was taunt between them.

Peeves soon was unable to move and Maylee stepped forward pulling out her paper tags. The female Unspeakable was only able to place one tag under the bound spirit when a flash of blue light distracted her.  
Looking down the hall the Unspeakable saw two blue lights on either side of the corridor spring up and slowly go out.

"What the?" Mumbled Murdock as he looking over his shoulder.

Shadows seemed to shift in the dim torch light as another pair of blue lights sprang forth. Maylee's eyes grew wide as she realized that her tags were catching fire.

"Hehehehe." Peeves laughed in a low humorless tone. "This is going to be fun, I'm sure of it."

Suddenly the tags closest to them caught fire, the blue light illuminating what could not be seen in the darkness. A short figure clothed all in black was silhouetted between the flickering lights.

"Is that a student?" Murdock wondered aloud, as he watched still holding the spell binding Peeves.

The figure then raised its hand and grasped something near its shoulder, and pulled. The fading blue light reflected against something shiny as the slow dull ring of steel rang out resonating down the hall.

"William?" Questioned Murdock. As soon as he was finished speaking the black figure suddenly disappeared and everything became chaotic.

"That's it!" Maylee yelped as she sensed a familiar burst of energy when the figure disappeared.

William grunted as he lost his balance when his rope like spell was unexpectedly severed.

"Behind you!" Murdock warned seeing the black figure just a few feet from Maylee and Peeves.

Maylee gasped and moved towards the wall as she looked over and saw the unknown being so close. The creature them moved with a fluid grace as it seemed to danced around Peeves, then with a swift strike it severed Murdock's spell.

"See ya suckers!" Peeves laughed as he was grabbed and pulled away, the unknown entity rushing past William as he struggled to his feet.

"After them!" William gasped and the three Unspeakables took off after the fleeing duo.

"Dang! Whatever it is it's fast." Murdock huffed as the mysterious being pulled the poltergeist away, soon even Peeves's bright colors faded into the darkness.

"Just follow the lights." William ordered as the group moved around corners and through doorways following the sporadic trail of burning sealing tags.

"What is that thing and why are your tags catching fire?" Murdock asked.

"I don't know?" Maylee answered. "Whatever that is it must be a spirit of some sort."

"No way." Murdock responded. "There's no way a ghost could be that powerful."

"Be quiet you two." William commanded as they reached a fork and saw no blue burning tags. "Maylee concentrate, which way?"

Taking a deep breath Maylee closed her eyes and tried to sense the little spirit. "That way." Maylee pointed, and the three took of after their quarry.

* * *

Harry stopped running confident that he had evaded the pursuit.

"Whoo." Peeves breathed. "Thank you Soul Reaper you saved me."

"Who were you friends?" Harry asked as he looked out from the alcove he had hidden in.

"They said they were Unspeakables, you know from the Ministry of Magic Department of Mysteries."

"I've just heard mention of them." Harry answered. "Why would they want you."

"I don't know, but this school has gone more crazy than normal. For some reason I can't pass through the walls, no ghost can. I found a few ghosts stuck in a class room they were all whining that they couldn't even open the doors."

"Must be the ward they put up around the castle." Harry muttered.

"So what do we do now Soul Reaper?"

"Leave that to me." Harry said. "Stay here I'll take care of things and will find you later.

"Stay here?" Peeves scoffed. "Those three twits are after me what if they-"

"Shhh, quiet!" Harry cut the poltergeist off as he felt a presence growing closer.

"What?" Peeves questioned in a whisper as they listened carefully. Slowly Peeves popped his head out from the out of the alcove.

"_Restis animus_." A voice cried from the darkness as a silver beam barely missed Peeves.

"Merlin's balls." Peeves cursed as he jetted from their hiding spot followed quickly by Harry.

"There it is get them both." Cried an elderly voice behind them as two rounded a corner.

"I'm going to fix this try not to get yourself captured." Harry whispered as the Unspeakables rounded the corner.

"What? Going where?" Peeves questioned as the young Soul Reaper leapt sideways diving out a closed window causing a loud shattering noise as he broke through.

Peeves as well as the Unspeakables were struck dumb from Harry's unexpected actions.

"Heh he heh…" Peeves chuckled with a certain amount of nervousness in his voice. He then seemed to regain his confidence as he shot off with a parting call. "Just because my friend isn't here doesn't mean you have any better chance of getting me."

The trio dashed after Peeves, however when they passed the broken window Maylee jumped out as well.

"Maylee!" Murdock yelped in shock. "We're too high!" He yelled as stopped to look out the window at the descending black figure of his co-worker. He was relieved to see that she seemed to be alright as she rapidly swung her wand causing multiple colored lights to flash around her in unknown spells.

"Come on Murdock get a move on, Maylee's a big girl she can handle herself." William chastised. "We stay on Peeves."

* * *

Harry landed and dashed toward the castle perimeter and the spiritual barrier, in just a few moments he was there as he again pulled his Zanpakuto from its sheath. Standing before the ward Harry set his feet raising his blade over his shoulder as he held it horizontally pointed at the barrier.

"Strike Koukuudenkou," The Apprentice of death breathed as the sword momentarily gleamed bright with energy.  
Harry's Zanpakuto changed ever so little in a subtle metamorphosis. The normal bright silver blade now seemed to glow with an faint inner light. The most noticeable change was at the pommel of the sword. Instead of a smooth blunt end the hilt now held two thin blades that extended from the bottom in a V shape. However that most eye catching thing about the new pommel was the spark of electricity that started at the base between the two blades rise stretching into a blue white line before blinking out and starting again.

Harry smiled as he shifted his weight forward and drove his blade into the invisible barrier. Before him the ward light up yellow as he released his spirit energy. Electricity arced and flashed around him as he channeled his power through his Zanpakuto's shikai form. It did not take long before the ward suddenly failed in a rush of released spiritual pressure. As soon as it was down the oppressive thick feeling disappeared with it.

Harry sighed as he turned back to the castle only to narrowly dodge a white spell that came at him. There before him holding her wand was the Unspeakable with high spirit energy. She was gasping for air, her breath creating a smoky haze in the cold.

"What are you?" She yelled into the night, her voice a mix of emotions.

The young Soul Reaper's smile was hidden in the shadows of his hood as he raised a hand to give a quick farewell salute. Executing a flash step The Apprentice of Death disappeared without any signs of his passing.

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(Author Notes) Yes! I really enjoyed writing that chapter. I hope it was as epic as I think it was. After this I am going to go over the previous chapters and make some quick changes for some mistakes I missed, don't worry there won't be any changes to the story.


	21. Unspeakable Introductions

[Disclaimer] I do not in any, way, shape, or form; own any rights for both Bleach and Harry Potter. I am simply enjoying myself as I smash the two universes together somewhat

(Author Notes) Wow it has been far too long since I have uploaded a chapter. There are of course plenty of excuses I have which I am sure all of you have heard before, so no need to repeat them. This is the full chapter that is rather short but I was having problems connecting this part into where I am wanting to go with the plot and I wanted to introduce MayLee a bit more. Also I felt that getting a bit more out would help me get my creative juices flowing. Enjoy.

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Dumbledore's eyes were fixed on being in front of him, before him stood non other than The Shadow. Despite The Shadow's short stature the cloaked form seemed to possess a nearly palpable power. The folds of the black material gave the impression that they hid some great secret. Even the Shadow's posture and movements told of skill, grace, and power.

The Headmaster's eyes grew wide as a bright blade was unsheathed from behind the creature's back. Its gleam a stark contrast from the rest of the darkness. Even in the dim light the metal flashed brilliantly, its mirror shine reflecting even the faintest lights. Then The Shadow vanished. The old man turned to look seeing the Unspeakables suddenly taken by surprise.

This was the second time watching the scene from the memories of the Unspeakables. However now he viewed from the memories of Murdock. He continues to watch as The Shadow escaped with Peeves and then after a few minutes were eventually spotted again.

Even though he had seen it before Dumbledore was still taken back by The Shadow's unexpected dive out the window. Murdock and William continued after Peeves even after Maylee followed The Shadow. It seemed as though they would capture the little spirit as he eventually ran into another of MayLee's barriers. However just as William raised his wand Peeves uttered, "Oh, he got it." and vanished through a wall, leaving the two men unable to follow.

Albus pulled himself out of the memory followed by the three Unspeakables. Each of them seemed to be contemplating what they had seen.

"I am afraid I have no experience or knowledge of what we just viewed in the memories. Any ideas?" Albus said, as he stroked his beard.

"You have no idea." Murdock scoffed.

"There's not much to go on." William said, his voice even. "The Headmaster contacted our department knowing almost nothing himself. Poltergeists we know how to deal with. With The Shadow we had little knowledge and still have, next to nothing to go on."

"Quite a mystery isn't it." MayLee said.

"Haha." Murdock muttered humorlessly, to the little joke about their jobs. "If anyone here would have a clue it would be you."

Maylee sighed as she was put on the spot. "Well what do we know maybe that will help."

"I'm guessing you want more than wears black, and has a sword." William stated.

"Maybe, but sometimes small things can help. "MayLee said." Like the sword now that I was able to review the memories I see that it was a katana, a type of sword that originated in Japan."

"How does that help?" Murdock sighed.

"It might, a puzzle cannot be completed without all its pieces." Dumbledore spoke up. "We know very little and anything could help us uncover something."

"The Shadow is a he."Said Murdock after a few moments of contemplation. "Peeves let it slip when the barrier fell. If we could get Peeves we would be able to find out so much more I'm sure."

Dumbledore nodded slowly. "Yes, while I would like that as well I doubt another attempt any more successful than before. Peeves and The Shadow will doubtless know of your new attempt and even if we did capture Peeves how would we ensure he gave us the information we wanted? Can you torture a ghost, or dose it with truth serum?"

The Unspeakables stood silent for a few moments before. William spoke again. "It's your call Headmaster. We don't want to go home empty handed, but at the same time this is your school."

"Thank you William for now I will consider everything that has happened here, I suggest that the three of you go home. I'm sure that you have family over for the holidays that you would like to return to."

William nodded and Murdock's frame seemed to sink slightly. However Maylee stepped forward.

"Headmaster I must protest." Maylee huffed. "This is something that should not be left alone, as mentioned before this is a school full of children. While the Shadow has not caused anyone any harm that does not mean he can't or won't."

"Yes I agree." The Headmaster nodded wisely. "The children's safety is a great concern for me but I can't close the school because of something we know so little about."

Maylee's face took a look of deliberation. "I would like to request staying at the school without my team for observation and additional safety for the school."

William and Dumbledore's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"I'm sorry my dear but I don't know if I can grant such a request, and I don't know how your department leaders would feel about leaving you here alone. There's also magic in place could complicate you here in such a fashion, If you were an employee of Hogwarts, that wouldn't be a problem." Dumbledore said.

William thought for a moment before speaking. "I don't know about all of that but I'm sure that the Head of the Department won't like the idea of leaving this as it is. So if the Headmaster is willing we might be able to work it out, perhaps you could become employee of both Hogwarts and The Department of Mysteries?"

"Surely something can be done that will be beneficial to us all." Dumbledore said as a smile slowly appeared on his elderly face.

* * *

The last days of winter break were uneventful. Regardless Harry and Peeves both laid low. With the help of enhanced senses and Agrona Harry learned that both of the male Unspeakables had left the castle but the woman was staying behind. From what Harry could tell from her faint spirit-energy she was not up up to anything involving spirits, but there was only so much he could tell from simply sensing her.

Ron seemed to still be confused about his own emotions. Whenever Harry entered the room Ron's face would cycle through a multiple emotions until finally scrunching up and resting at stubborn childish anger. Ron's demeanor did not go unnoticed by the Inquisitive Weasley Twin but besides a few looks pointed looks between them and Harry that the young Soul Reaper waved off nothing became of it.

The rest of the students eventually came back from Christmas Holiday. At the New Year Feast the Headmaster Introduced the female Unspeakable as MayLee Cheng and that she would be staying for at least the rest of the year as an assistant professor to Professor Binns. Despite being told that she was simply an assistant many of the students thought that The Shadow had gotten the school a new History of Magic teacher.

As it turned out History of Magic was one of the first classes that Harry had once classes started again. Hermione seemed to be particularly excited.

"I wonder if Professor Cheng will be teaching us anything?" Hermione excitedly wondered out-loud. "Its exciting that someone so young is able get a position as a assistant professor."

"What's up Hermione?" Seamus asked. "I thought you actually enjoyed The Professor's dull drone."

"I find the material he teaches interesting enough to stay awake, unlike most of you." She replied pointedly.

"I don't know how you can say that Hermione?" Dean said incredulously. "I would think that something like as neat as the goblin rebellions would be cool. I mean I always enjoyed that kind of stuff in primary school, but Binn's makes even the most spectacular battles boring. Why are we still learning about them we have been learning about them all year, can't we learn something more relevant?"

Ron sighed as he replied to Dean's question. "When Binns died it much more relevant history than it is today, and you better get used to also. From what my brothers say he will be teaching mostly be teaching about the goblin rebellions until O.W.L.s "

"To be fair there were a lot of them." Lavender said.

Harry and the rest of the students entered the room and saw Maylee in a back corner watching the students come in. Harry sat down and using all of his senses he tried to find out more about the woman as he could without arousing her suspicion.

MayLee was unaware that she was under such scrutiny. So far the young Unspeakable was quietly pondering her position here at Hogwarts. The Assistant Professor position was simply a cover for her to stay at the school and continue investigating the situation involving The Shadow and the other spirits here. History was actually one of her favorite subjects when she was in school in China. However the subject here at Hogwarts left much to be desired and she had only been through one class so far. Binns was absolutely the most boring ghost she had ever encountered, and that was saying something since being incorporeal made one's unlife dull already.

That was not to say that everything at Hogwarts was lacking. She was able to talk with most of the teachers at Hogwarts and from what she learned she could safely say that some of the teachers were spectacular, others seemed to be laughable. Flitwick, Sprout and McGonagall Seemed be great teachers as well as having masteries in their particular subjects. Snape was an internationally know Potions Master but from the rumors she heard his teaching methods were lacking. Binns' class was so far boring and out of date. She was considering that if things did not improve she would create her own curriculum and silence the ghost and teach the class herself despite her being an assistant. Astronomy seemed to be adequate but she was curious why it was a required subject until fifth year when Divination, Ancient Runes, and Arithmancy: the subjects that were the most relevant to Astronomy were optional. Defense Against the Dark Arts seemed to be a subject in need of help because the rumored curse on the subject could very well be real since no teacher had lasted more than a year for several decades.

The third year electives also seemed to face the same problems as the core classes. Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, and Care of Magical Creatures seemed be fine be fine. However Muggle Studies seemed to be greatly lacking, England already seemed to be further behind much of the magical world when is came to modernization. The the Professor Charity Burbage seemed to teach the subject the same way a muggle foreign language teacher who's only experience with a language was spending six months in a foreign country 40 years ago. Finally, from what MayLee had heard about Divination it was very different from what she had learned. While she hadn't met Professor Trelawney she seemed to focus only on the future part of divination.

Some thing were better about Hogwarts than the school she went to. The castle was amazing and sung with magic and energy. While she could not say that it was particularly a good thing the student population was much smaller from her school, which should permit the teacher to give students more attention.

In fact she did not get much attention until they discovered her talent with spiritual creatures. Her teachers told her that she had a gift that was as rare as a true seer, if perhaps not as useful. Asia was one of the few places where a few species of magical, and spiritual creature existed. MayLee had the ability to sense these creatures as well as interact with them to a point. It took years of intense study as well as some magical augmentation to focus her talent.

Soon after graduation her family moved to England in order to take advantage of the economical vacuum that was leftover from their magical civil war. MayLee was able to find a job in The Department of Mysteries after she explained her talent to the Ministry. She personally had more experience with spiritual creatures than all of the department but she was happy being placed on the small team with Murdock and William. It was rather boring work that focused on the study of spiritual creatures rather than control or capture. However they were called in whenever there was a ghoul or some other spirit that the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures couldn't deal with.

There were so few varieties of spirits here in Europe, but this Shadow was unlike anything she had ever heard of. She was almost certain that it was a spirit of some time, whether a magically created one or an extremely rare unknown species she was not sure. One thing was certain it had human or near human levels of intelligence. While she was staying at Hogwarts William and Murdock were back at the Ministry trying to find out any clue about The Shadow. She had also sent a letter to her teachers back In China to see if they had any information.

The Shadow had seemingly done nothing after the encounter him. She doubted that they had driven him away from the school, and while she did not bet often she would bet that it wouldn't be long until he showed up again.

MayLee Sighed quietly as she prepared herself to do nothing for a boring class.

Little did MayLee know that the Shadow was sitting in the same room as her.

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(Author Notes)

I hope you have enjoyed newest chapter in over a year, my bad. But anyway, school has help me loads, or at least in my opinion; I am sure I will be making much of the same mistakes I have before. However, after reading a few good fanfics I remembered "Hey I have a fanfiction myself I should get back on it." The long break has helped a bit giving me ideas for the story as well as completely new and awesome story idea. It also helps that Bleach has put out new manga and episodes which helps with new ideas and powers that Harry can have. Please forgive this unworthy author for making you wait so long, and sadly I can't promise that you will get another chapter as soon as you or I might like.


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